Flaming Fury
by Jaidyn Reiman
Summary: The Chaotix encounter a new mystery when Charmy finds a wounded echidna in the jungle, and it isn't Knuckles. Meanwhile, a strange mercenary hires the Babylon Rogues for his own purposes. T for small blood and violence. ChaotixBabylon Rivalry. COMPLETE!
1. Mysterious Encounters

**Author's Notes**: Yeah, I decided to do another fic. This one is yet another mystery fic, and will delve into the plots of my fan-characters. From my previous fics, I have greatly updated the detail. However, there are some areas where I did not. Mainly, though, it was because it's annoying to write out long-drawn areas to add in extra details to the room. Note the final scene in particular for this. However, there are quite a few highly-detailed areas elsewhere in this chapter.

**Disclaimer**: Whoops, almost forgot to do this in the originally version. Charmy, Espio, Vector, Jet, Wave, Storm, the Babylon Airship, and the Mystic Ruins are all copyright to SEGA/Sonic Team, all rights reserved. Ultima the Hedgehog is owned by me, as well as the wounded echidna in the first chapter (don't worry, his name will be revealed later). The basic plotline of this fic is also mine.

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**Flaming Fury**

_**Chapter 1: Mysterious Encounters**_

The sun peeked through the treetops. The light, reflecting strangely in the dense forest, blazed with a shear, brilliant sensation! It was early in the morning of a new summer day, deep within the Mystic Ruins. Surprisingly, a small figure raced through the _formerly_ calm forest. It was a large bee.

He was less that three and a half feet tall, and weighed around thirty pounds. He had two winds, spreading out to form a wingspan that almost equaled one foot, and a stinger that was nearly five inches long! He also had short, striped, black and white fur that covered his entire body. On his head was a small, brown helmet (probably used to not hurt his head if he ever crashed). The bee's name was Charmy.

Charmy dashes through the forest like a speeding bullet, swaying this way and that to dodge trees that blocked his path ahead. He giggled slightly just from the speed he was going add. Noticing a rock formation up ahead, he quickly swung right and narrowly missed slamming his head into the hard stone. He quickly glanced back as he passed. _'Few, that was close!'_ He thought. He only looked back a split-second before turning back ahead, just to notice a red figure right in front of him.

"Woah, woah, woah!" he cried, trying to stop in the air. Unfortunately, the environment in the air has a lot less friction that on the ground, and he slammed right into the figure, knocking him down. Charmy rolled off and onto the ground. He rubbed his head and looked back toward the red creature lying on the ground. "He… hey, are you okay?" He asked.

He flew back into the air, and then back to the figure. He looked down at the creature, cautiously. The bee eyed it carefully, checking every little detail. The _red_ creature looked kind of like a hedgehog, but its quills were strange, like Knuckles'. It had six quills, three of which were at the top of its head. The first one Charmy noticed was on the way right side of his head, which lay at a peculiar angle around the way right side, visible from the front. As usual, one sat right on top of his head, and came down far. Charmy noticed that it actually was visible way down between his legs.

The third one was on the way left side and a little lower than the right one, but it was slightly to the right of his head. Charmy estimated it to be almost directly beneath his left ear, but just lower than both of the previous quills. The fourth one was in between the right two, but was a few inches above the bottom of his head. The final two were below the left one, but spread out enough to be on either side of it. The first of the two was a little higher than the final one, but lower than the fourth one. This one was positioned to the right of the final one and to the third one. The final one was right at the bottom of the creature's head, and lay toward the left side. It was clearly an echidna of some sort.

The echidna appeared to be only fourteen years old, but it was about three feet and five inches tall (estimated to be about 102 to 104 centimeters tall, if you use metric). Charmy noticed that he wasn't wounded from the crash, but was clearly injured before. He had mild burn marks along his legs and upper torso. Clearly, he was wounded before, and was just barely able to stand.

The bee landed back down on the ground and carefully approached him. "Hey, what happened? I can help you." The echidna didn't move. Charmy walked up next to him and got a closer look. The echidna's eyes were closed. This scared the bee for a second, until he sighed of relief when noticing that its chest was heaving in and out slightly. _'He must've fallen unconscious!'_ Charmy thought to himself.

He stepped around to the side of the red echidna, but felt a metal object beneath his foot. Charmy quickly stepped back and gasped. A sword lay on the ground. The light from above reflected off of the shining blade. The hilt was brown, and a strange symbol was etched into the wood. He grabbed the hilt of the blade and lifted it up a little. The young bee set the blade down into his left palm, and let the hilt lay in his right. He just stared at its beauty. He moved his palm across the bottom of the blade and toward the point. When doing this, though, he felt a warm liquid on his had.

Charmy took his hand away from the blade and noticed a red liquid cover it. "Oh my god!" He screamed, throwing the sword back into the grass. Charmy wiped the liquid off of his hand, but there was no cut in his glove. _'That could only mean one thing…'_ He thought.

Re-approaching the blade, Charmy quickly grabbed the handle and flipped over the sword, then backed away. The edge of the blade was covered in fresh blood, still warm. He backed away from the echidna, now noticing black shoes laying in the grass at the echidna's feet, that clearly weren't colored that way naturally. _'What is this? Who is he? What is he doing here? What happened to him?' _Questions flooded Charmy's mind, but he was unable to answer any of them. He knew that there was only one thing left to do. The bee flew off at high speeds, glancing back at the wounded figure once more before disappearing into the density of the forest.

**XXXXX**

Sitting in the sofa, the large, green figure nodded his head. He had a pair of headphones on, with his eyes closed. His right hand he held up against his ear, and he sat there in that pose. In room in back, grunts, punches, and slices could be heard. Then, the noise in back stopped, and a purple chameleon walked out holding a small hand towel. "Vector, don't you ever actually work when we're not on a case? You just sit around listening to that racket all day, and don't spare any time for training."

Despite all that talking, Vector didn't get out of the pose. He just kept on nodding his head to the music. The chameleon sighed. "Vector, what are you listening to?"

Again, he didn't stop.

The chameleon just rolled his eyes. He quickly ripped a short katana out of its sheath, reached over, and sliced it upward through the cord to Vector's headphones. The crocodile quickly opened his eyes. "Hey, did the power go out or something?"

The chameleon leaned against the wall and waited. He crossed his arms, and watched Vector's reactions.

Vector growled. "Espio, did you cut the cord again! Now I'll need to buy ANOTHER pair of headphones!"

Espio chuckled slightly. "Or you can just stop listening to music all-together."

Vector was about to speak up again, but the door slammed open. Charmy came flying in, yelling out. "Espio! Vector! Come on, someone needs help, now!"

Espio and Vector both looked up at the same time, surprised. "What's going on!" They both asked in unison.

**XXXXX**

A nurse walked up and glanced at the trio sitting in the waiting room. She was human, female, and about one and a half times Espio's height, though only a little taller than Vector. "You guys are lucky you got him in on time. He was wounded pretty badly, and we found two bullets in him, with another bullet hole visible in his foot. Also, severe burns covered his body. He is alive, though, and you have that young bee to thank."

Vector nodded. "Something just doesn't add up, though. There was a blade at the scene, and the tip was covered in blood, too, but he had no cuts on him. So, if he wasn't wounded by it, then obviously he must've used it against his attacker. Also, the burns don't make any sense at all."

The nurse nodded. "GUN is investigating the scene now, but nothing can be made of it. Right now, let's just be glad that he's alive."

"That's another thing," Espio added, "who is 'he.' His description matches that of an echidna, but there's only one echidna left alive on Earth, and he's not even _on_ Earth at this moment in time."

The nurse shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't know any more than you do. I only came here to report the news to the ones who brought him here, and that's all I did. I need to get back to work, now." With that said, the nurse walked away.

Vector rubbed his index finger against his forehead, curiously. "Boys, I think we have a mystery on our hands."

**XXXXX**

The green bird yawned loudly. He sat back in his chair with his eyes closed. The creature had a green feathered tail, of which three large feathers could be seen. He had large feathers in the back of his head that hung down, much like the quills of Sonic. He had a beak for a face, fitted with a weird grin. Two nostrils were on either side of his mouth at the end of his beak. The bird snored softly as he slept.

Suddenly, the door to his room slammed open, causing a picture frame on the wall to land on his head. "Ahh!" He yelled, jumping up.

A big guy lumbered it. It was a gray-feathered bird, with a large white tuff of fur on its chest. "Hey boss, someone's here to see you!" He proclaimed.

The green bird growled. "Storm, what have I told you about barging in like that?"

Storm backed away. "S… sorry boss, but it was important!"

"Gah, no matter how important it may be, it's more important that you don't slam the door to one's room open without notice, first. You should at least knock! What if you did it to Wave and she was changing? What would happen then?"

Storm put his hands up and backed up even further. "S… sorry, boss! I won't do it again!" He saluted and then paused.

The boss finally gave up. "Alright then, so what is this big emergency, anyway? If it's anything like what happened with Doctor Eggman, your share of the cash will be docked on our next mission."

Storm shuddered at the thought and quickly ran off. Soon, he came back, and a silver hedgehog walked in after him. Storm quickly walked out and slammed the door behind him, shaking the whole cabin. "Gah!" The leader yelled again.

He shook his head and looked up at the new arrival. "Well then, are you just another guy who heard of my skills, and wanted to try and use me to get something out of it?"

The hedgehog grinned. "Actually, I had a mission for you guys. You are Jet, am I correct?"

"Yeah, that's me." Jet said, nodding.

"Good." He pulled a small card out of his pocket, and handed it to Jet. "My name is Ultima. I am in the need of assistance, and heard about you guys after the Ex-World Grand Prix incident. I didn't think much of it at first, but recently I came across someone, who I would like you to track down."

Jet looked up curiously. "Wait, so you want to _hire_ us? How much are you offering?"

Ultima tapped on the wall behind him. Then, Storm barged in again and handed over a briefcase. The hedgehog opened the case up, pulled an object out, and closed it again. "I have a proposal for you. Get me the one I want, and I'll give you the contents of this briefcase." He held up a large diamond, about the size of a Chaos Emerald. "This case is filled with these, all the same size." He nodded to Storm and tossed him the diamond. "Here, your prize."

Storm laughed gleefully, and ran out of the room. A figure walked in after he left, though. Jet looked up again. "This is all fine and dandy, but where did you get your hands on such a prize?" He asked.

The figure that entered nodded. She was another bird, this time purple. "Yeah, how do we know that you're not just another crook?"

"Look who's talking." Ultima commented, dryly. "Well, Wave, I suppose I'll just have to tell you." Suddenly, he swung a hand gun out of a slot in his belt. He quickly pointing it at a board on a stand in the corner and fired. The bullet smashed straight into the dark green line at the top in the center, right at the line where it met up with the yellow layer just below it. The bullet stuck into the outside of the board, and stayed there.

Wave had quickly grabbed onto the frame of the doorway she was standing in, clearly afraid that the ship was about to lose altitude from the pressure of the air up in the stratosphere. She opened her eyes cautiously and gave off a sigh of relief. Then she looked at Ultima, angrily. "You crazy fool! Do you no what you would've done if that bullet had went through the wall? You could've killed us all!" Jet just stared up from his chair, a surprised look had clearly gripped his face.

Wave finally cooled down, then glanced at where Ultima had shot. "Oh my god!" She screamed. She quickly ran over to the board, examining every inch of it. She ripped the bullet out of the side and tossed it into a trashcan. "At least it only a minor repair, but…" She looked back up at the figure.

Ultima just stared at her. "I'm sorry, but I'm just a lowly mercenary. Meddling in the affairs with others isn't my problem, unless it pays well. Unfortunately, my current mission calls for drastic measures. Obviously you'll need to get that repaired before you start, but one with your skills shouldn't have a problem fixing it, right?"

Jet nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Wave. This is a chance to get some well-deserved cash! A few minor setbacks won't trouble us." Finally getting out of his chair, the hawk got up and walked over to the hedgehog. "Alright then, mister. You got yourself a deal!" He held out his hand, and Ultima shook it.

"Please, Jet, just call me Ultima."

Jet nodded. He went back and leaned against the table in the middle of the room. Wave had already disappeared, probably to go and fix the board after that bullet had slammed into it, though it failed to go completely through because of the hard material that these newer forms of Extreme Gear were made out of. "So, now that that's settled, who's our target?"

Ultima grinned evilly. "I've found out that a young bee has been messing with my target. I was wounded so I retreated, then I learned that he had found him. Deciding it best to not go back right away, I came to you guys." He slipped a picture out of his pocket and handed it to Jet. "There, these are your targets."

Jet studied the picture. There were three figures—a young bee, a green crocodile, and a purple chameleon. Along the bottom of the picture read 'The Chaotix Detective Agency.'

"I fear that they will meddle with my plans." Ultima continued. "I want them dead… as soon as possible."

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**_End of Chapter Notes_**: The hedgehog and the echidna are both my fan-characters, yes, but they don't get much of a plot. Only enough to advance the storyline, and to slowly reveal information about them. The main characters, though, are actually Chaotix. The Babylon Rogues also have a huge part. Don't worry, other characters will appear in future chapters. I plan on having other favorites appear in the future, but I won't reveal who they are... just yet.

Also, I'm not updating this fic again until Ultimate Chaos is finished. I plan on doing that within the next week or two. Three chapters are left in that, then I'll worry about other things. You don't have to worry about me neglecting other fics to work on this, I got that covered. After Ultimate Chaos is done, I'll continue on this, but also on Unsolved Mysteries. After both of them are done, I'll just work on this, though I may continue either All of Me or Vengeance is Mine. Note that I plan on wiping out all my original ideas for the fic (Vengeance is Mine) and continuing it AFTER Sonic Adventure 2, to co-insist more with the current summary.


	2. Undeniable Evidence

**Author's Notes**: YES! I finally finished a new chapter. Notice the new outline used, though. I have the first paragraph in a section not indexed, and the next paragraph is indexed and only spaced out one line before the previous one. New sections are now space out by two lines, with the first paragraph in the next section not indexed again, etc. This chapter is well done scenery-wise, and detail is excellent. Notice how I added in the detail of Jet's room left out in the last chapter. Dialogue isn't designed well, but I'm working on that. Sorry about the delays—mixture of Writer's Block, my web site, and grounding kept me away from the other fics—but I found that I didn't have Writer's Block for this one.

**Disclaimer**: The Chaotix, Babylon, GUN, and anything from the Sonic the Hedgehog series are copyright SEGA/Sonic Team. Flame and Ultima are both my fan-made characters and are owned by me, but not copyrighted because they are fan-characters, and I don't know how to do something like that anyway. Still, don't use them without permission. The name for the Commander is fan-made, but he's still the same one from Shadow the Hedgehog.

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**Flaming Fury**

**_Chapter 2: Undeniable Evidence_**

The area was undeniably a crime scene. Yellow tape was strewn about, blocking the general public from accessing the area. Blood spatter was evident in the grass. The weapons were left lying in the grass when the Chaotix had notified the police of the incident. The Central City CSI agents, and GUN soldiers ran about. Shadow was a little weary being the only person here who worked directly for the president, other than Rouge who stood beside him, but that soon passed over when he saw a familiar face.

"Commander William!" He called out.

The old commander of the GUN forces turned around and glanced at his friend. His features were clearly evident at first glance. His old age revealed itself, even though he was not much older than Eggman. The good ole' doctor still had a brown hair complexion and hadn't shown the slightest hint of gray. Actually, the commander's pure white hair was not the cause of age, but a mutation he received at birth which caused an albino hair color. Another mutation that revealed itself was his right eye color of brown, while his left eye remained a green. Still, he was well known and well respected among GUN. How had he managed to get this job, though? Shadow wondered.

William approached the black hedgehog and held out his hand. "Good to see you, Shadow." He proclaimed. Shadow gripped it fiercely and shook, showing a rare smile on his face.

A few minutes later, both Shadow and Rouge had been updated to the current time on the mysterious crime scene. Both were surprised to hear that the DNA of the blood on the sword did not match the DNA of the blood on the ground where the echidna had been lying. However, they did find blood elsewhere nearby, along with a whole trail of blood. This blood was consistent with the blood on the sword. The ironic thing was that the trail led back to the volcano and ended there. DNA scans were currently in process, to try and determine whom the blood belonged to.

"Wait a minute," Rouge butted in. Everyone around her glanced up at her, surprised and curious. "So, the victim was the one who was using the sword?" She asked. Before an answer came, she continued. "That sword is very old, yet it looks brand new. Nothing like it can be traced to anywhere in the world nowadays, but similar artifacts have been uncovered from the archaeological finds of the ancient echidna civilization. How would someone manage to get his hands on something like this?" She finished.

Unsurprisingly, Shadow gave the answer. He lifted up his sunglasses to try and give his best, "professional" look. "Well, from some of my studies, I've found some interesting things. Namely, that Knuckles isn't the only echidna left on Earth, just one of the few ones still living. Second, I've learned that modern-day descendants of ancient civilizations often try to reflect themselves similarly to his or her ancestors. It's possible that this echidna just decided to have this weapon created because he wanted similar artifacts of his ancestors. I know of many descendants of ancient Babylonians are Extreme Gear fanatics, so this may be something like that."

Rouge nodded. "That's a logical answer, I'll admit, but why would he actually use it?"

Shadow stared. He coughed slightly, as if to try and clear his throat. This would be a difficult answer. "Well, maybe he decided to try it out a little, and someone attacked him, so he used it in self-defense."

Rouge sighed. "Well, I suppose that's a possibility, but I still have a feeling that there's more to this than meets the eye."

Suddenly, a soldier came running toward them frantically. "I've just received word," he said. All eyes gazed upon him. "The DNA results of the blood found has returned, and I'm delivering the message." He finished his statement. "We found a match."

William gazed up. "Who is it?" He asked.

The soldier handed his superior officer a sheet of paper. William quickly read through it, stunned. "Oh my god…" He said softly to himself.

_**XXXXX**_

Vector peered through the crowds of on-looking spectators. Tons of civilians, reporters, and police officers had now heard about what happened, and were crowding around the crime scene. He growled, knowing that there was no way he could possibly get through.

Vector pulled Espio and Charmy back away from the crowds, into a grove of trees nearby. He quickly whispered to Espio, "Espio, you have to turn invisible and sneak into there. We need information!" He said.

Espio growled. "That doesn't sound like a good idea." He remarked.

Suddenly, Vector snapped. He grabbed Espio and pushed him back out of the grove and into the crowd. Instantly, the chameleon disappeared, not wanting to give away his position.

Espio quickly turned back around, still invisible. "Are you crazy?" He said quietly to Vector.

Vector shook his head. "Just trust me!" He replied.

Reluctantly, Espio finally willed himself to sneak through. He pushed through the crowd unseen. He did bump into other people, but they just assumed that it was other people around. Actually, there weren't a whole lot of people here. Just some civilians who had heard about the accident and lived nearby, and a few reporters, but there really weren't many. Finally, Espio found himself at the front of the crowd and almost tripped over the yellow tape marking the location that they had to stop at. He sighed and quickly rolled underneath it unnoticed.

Inside the crime scene, Espio snuck forward past GUN agents and Central City police officers. He entered a clearing, but hearing some voices ahead, he quickly dived to the right and hid against a tree. Soft footsteps walked towards him, and he panicked. What if they caught him? Would they think that he might have something to do with it? Would he get arrested for illegally entering a crime scene, despite being one of the ones to bring the victim to the hospital?

He heard two deep voices. One was really dark, but no hint of being sinister or villainous. It was a male. The other was clearly female, but also deeper and a little older. However, he quickly recognized the voices, especially after the next comment.

"So, what do you make of it, Shadow?" The female said.

Espio knew then and there that they were in fact Shadow and Rouge. After the Black Arm attacks a year ago, Shadow joined GUN, and after successfully getting in with flying colors, he became Rouge's partner. Not surprising to anyone else, though. Those two had a sort of bond. Though Shadow moved in with Rouge, and even how they hung out together often, everyone knew that they had no intention of ever getting married, and knew that they never even fell in love. They did love each other—no doubt about it, but it wasn't a romantic sort of love. They were good friends, and treated each other like brother and sister, even though they really had almost nothing in common. Besides, they couldn't love each other. Though many didn't see it, it was obvious to Rouge's closest friends--including Shadow, Sonic, Tails, Cream, Vector, Charmy and himself, that she was in love with Knuckles. Obviously Knuckles himself didn't suspect this, and Rouge hadn't told anyone, but they all could tell how she felt for him.

"Well, it's an interesting story." Shadow said. "I'd like to get some more information before trying to simply jump straight to conclusions, but my best guess is that this guy interfered with the hedgehog's plans, and he tried to kill him. The echidna used his weapon against the hedgehog in self-defense, and, wounded, the hedgehog ran off—hoping that the echidna would die. From Charmy's story, it sounds as if it happened only minutes prior to his wandering, and the echidna was about to fall unconscious in a few more seconds anyway."

Espio glanced up, surprised. _'Hedgehog? What hedgehog?'_

He heard Rouge start speaking, but she suddenly stopped without getting a single word out. He heard no noise after that. If his ears were good enough, he would've heard Shadow quietly shushing Rouge. If they were also better than they were now, he would've been able to hear quiet footsteps slowly getting louder. However, they weren't, and he didn't notice that Shadow was approaching until Shadow was right behind him, which was when he finally heard Shadow's soft footsteps in the grass.

Finally, Rouge spoke up. It was quiet, but loud enough for Espio to understand her. "What is it, Shadow?" She said softly.

Shadow ignored her and simply stepped out in front of the thick tree Espio was hiding behind. Espio saw his grin, and instantly knew that Shadow could see him. "It's a nice trick, but it doesn't work for me." Shadow said. "I can see through your tricks, so just come from behind that tree."

Espio walked away from the tree as Rouge approached. He did not; however, remove his invisibility.

He glanced up and down and examined Shadow carefully. The hedgehog looked like his normal self—spiky quills in a messy do, oval shaped red eyes with red edges around them, jet black fur covering his entire body, and red stripes along the front ends of his legs and along his quills. Also noticeable were those rings around his wrists and ankles, his white gloves, and his black and red shoes. Espio did notice that he was wearing a pair a strange black shades, though, which he had never seen before.

Rouge spoke up, bewildered. "Who are you talking to?" She asked.

Shadow lifted up his shades and pointing at Espio. "These glasses are specially designed to see in the dark. They sense heat signatures and project them." He waved his hand toward Espio and continued in a sarcastic tone. "Rouge, meet Espio the Chameleon."

Suddenly, Espio realized that his invisibility went down without him activating it. He noticed that Shadow must've somehow removed it, as his hand was stretched out but now dropped to his side.

Rouge quickly jumped back in surprise, but regained her sense of balance and commented. "Well then, what a pleasant surprise." She said.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Silence won't help you. You know you're not supposed to be trespassing on a crime scene. I know that Vector wants to solve this case, but it's out of his hands now."

Espio sighed. "There's something strange going on with this case, and we're just the ones to crack it." He finally said.

Shadow shook his head. "No, Espio. This is a case for GUN and the Central City crime lab. It's out of the hands of Chaotix. Now, let me show you to the exit."

Espio was about to move, but knew what Shadow was planning on doing.

Shadow quickly outstretched his arms and swung them back, yelling out, "Chaos Control!"

Espio covered his eyes as a blinding green light swallowed Shadow, Rouge, and himself in a Chaos Control warp.

_**XXXXX**_

Aboard the Babylon airship, high in the sky above the Central Mountain region, Jet sat back in his chair chuckling to himself. They were about to get huge amounts of doe, and the only thing they had to do was destroy a few maniac detectives. It all seemed too easy. He didn't care what disadvantages it might bring about—they would be rich!

The Ultima guy had left a while ago. He had managed to contact the airship and ask for boarding, then used his own (stolen) technology to transport himself onto the ship. He then gave a huge gem to Storm for allowing him onto the ship, and helping carry his stuff. Jet liked that about him.

Finally, getting off of his butt, he stood up and glanced around his own room and office—making sure everything was in tip-top shape. A picture hung up on the wall above him, showing an old hawk. Right in front of him was his desk, with the control box sitting on top of it. There was also a small phone and receiver sitting on the table, which not only could call outside, but anywhere else in the ship. Against the wall to his left, the same wall where the picture hung, a window that looked out across the mountains sat close to the west-most wall. Behind Jet, in the opposite corner of the window, was his green 'Type J' speed-type Extreme Gear board, sitting on a stand. The door was at the front of the room.

Jet picked up the small phone off of the receiver on his desk and pushed the Auto-dial 1: Airship Control Room. Wave picked up the phone on the other line.

"Alright captain, what are your orders?" She asked sarcastically.

"Wave, we have a new destination." He told her.

Wave nodded even though Jet couldn't see it over the phone. "Where to?" She asked.

Jet grinned devilishly. "South by southwest—the Mystic Ruin."

_**XXXXX**_

Knuckles stood up against a tree near the scene, surveying it in its entirety. The onlookers was mainly limited to a few who lived in the near vicinity and reporters, but it was enough to make a mess of things. He heard about the mysterious attack earlier, and was surprised to hear that there WERE other echidnas left alive on earth. He was simply one of the very few. That right there was enough to get him off of the island and into the Mystic Ruin jungle where the victim was found.

He simply casually leaned up against the tree, hoping that no one would pay much attention to him. People came and went, but never going passed the yellow tape blocking off the region where the blood had been found and along the entire trail. Soldiers and police officers came and went as well, often carrying bags of evidence and tools in and out of the crime scene.

Knuckles tried his best to hide his excitement over this whole situation. It was strange to know that there were other echidnas still alive on Earth. The aspect both puzzled and amazed him. This was a very unusual concept. How are echidnas supposed to act, anyway? He'd never been around others to find that out. He knew that if anyone found out about how he felt, it ruin his image, so he did his best to cover up it by acting like his usual, hot-headed self.

Surprisingly, a blinding, green-tinted flash of light forced Knuckles to cover his eyes and back away from the tree. The reactions of many of the people nearby was also one of surprise. Blocking the light with his hand, but allowing enough room for him to still see ahead, he tried to make out what was going on. A few seconds later it died down, and Knuckles quickly realized what it was.

Groaning, the echidna slapped himself on his forehead and ran over to the three figures that just appeared. "Working over time, 'eh Shadow?" He asked.

When everyone realized that it was only Shadow coming out of a Chaos Control warp, they all went back to examining the scene. However, finally deciding that they wouldn't be able to see anything further, many of the civilians left and went home.

Shadow grinned and smiled. "Yeah—you can say that." He pushed Espio away as Vector and Charmy came rushing toward them. "I'm taking out the trash." He finally finished.

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "What happened?" He asked.

Rouge walked out into the open and chuckled. "That chameleon was snooping around in areas he didn't belong." She said.

Knuckles glanced over at the three Chaotix members, and noticed that they were whispering. Shadow looked up to them. "You fools better get on out of here. I don't want you trespassing on government-claimed territory again, understand?"

Vector nodded. "Alright, then, we won't trespass." He turned around and motioned toward Espio and Charmy. "Come on, boys, let's get going!" He yelled out.

The three Chaotix members ran off into the forest. Shadow finally turned back, satisfied that they weren't coming back. "So Knuckles, what brings you here? Trying to find out about that mysterious echidna?" He asked.

Knuckles sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I was a little curious about the whole thing. What's your take on it?"

Shadow was about to speak, but Rouge butted in first. "Shadow thinks that it's just another echidna who happened to have survived like you, and he's just trying to be like his ancestors."

Shadow nodded, despite being angry at Rouge for he interruption. "I am a little curious about why a known and dangerous fugitive wanted to kill this person, though. It just doesn't make sense."

Knuckles looked up, stunned. "A fugitive tried to kill this echidna?" He asked.

Shadow nodded and handed a small page, a picture of a hedgehog on it. "He's not all that well known, but it is confirmed that he's a deadly mercenary. Rumor has it that he lives in an unknown location within the Mystic Ruins, but no one can find it."

Knuckles stared at the page blankly. "Ultima, huh? Well then, maybe I should have a little chat with this person—if I can find him."

_**XXXXX**_

That evening, Vector, Espio, and Charmy settled down into their office located at the edge of the Mystic Ruins, but closer to Central City and it's suburbs. It was only a small building, but it had two floors. Downstairs were a sitting room, Vector's room and office, and a training room. Upstairs was where Espio and Charmy's rooms were, as well as the kitchen.

Vector plopped down into the large sitting chair up against the east wall of the main room and Charmy sat into a small hammock hanging in the southwest corner, on the opposite wall where Vector was. Espio slouched up against the north wall, which led back into the training room and where the stairwell was in the far-western part of the room. The TV sat beneath Charmy's hammock and the door leading outside was directly in front of Espio across the room. A small coffee table was in front of Vector's chair, which he had his feet propped up on. To the left of Vector on the south wall was a window looking out front, and on same wall as himself just to his left was the door leading into his office.

The three members groaned miserably from failure. Everyone was quiet. Charmy never even made a peep and Vector's headphones, though still on his head, were turned off.

Espio finally broke the silence. "Okay, so we know that the echidna and the hedgehog who attacked him started fighting inside the volcano. The searing heat alone probably caused the burns. One of them got stabbed—probably the echidna, whom then rushed down the mountainside and into the forest."

Vector added onto this. "The hedgehog then, not wanting to lose him, must've chased the echidna back into the jungle. They had met up where the scene is now, and the echidna probably wounded the hedgehog out of self-defense."

Charmy then decided to speak up. "I then just happened to be wandering in the forest at the time, and the echidna was already weak from exhaustion and about to collapse anyway. I happened to be flying so fast that I slammed into him, which then knocked him out."

Vector nodded. "Now we know what happened in the crime scene itself. We still do not know where the echidna got the sword, where he came from, why the hedgehog was after him, and why they were in the Mystic Ruins."

"Well, we've got this pieced together. We still have some more questions, though." Espio said. "And I think I know just the person to ask."

He quickly moved from his position and ran to the door. "Come on, we have a victim to talk with." He said.

Vector nodded. "YES! Let's go!" He yelled out. Vector jumped out of his chair and ran out the door.

Charmy looked up. "H… hey guys, wait for me!" He jumped out of his hammock and flew outside, slamming the door shut behind him.

_**XXXXX**_

He glanced on the monitor at the three figures running toward the city and smiled. _'You guys won't succeed. I will find you, and when I do, you'll never see the light of day again!'_ He thought to himself.

He picked up a small phone and dialed. It rang once, but before it finished it's first ring, someone answered. "I've found your targets. They're running along Route 30 into the city of Central City. Pick them off… quickly."

His client replied, "Okay," then hung up.

He laughed and hung up. "Mmmhmmhmm…. You fools will die, and your bodies will rot in the grave for all eternity!"


	3. Fight Night 30

**Author's Notes**: Phew, I finally finished this. The fight didn't come out as good as I hoped, but oh well.

**Disclaimer**: The Chaotix, Babylon, GUN, the United Federation, and anything Sonic the Hedgehog related is copyright to SEGA/Sonic Team. Ultima and Flame are both my own original characters, and are owned by ME. If you want to use them, just ask. Silver is also a Sonic the Hedgehog character, but the game he debuts in isn't out yet. He is also copyright to SEGA/Sonic Team. The name for the President is fan-made, but the President IS an official Sonic Team character.

* * *

**Flaming Fury**

_**Chapter 3: Fight Night 30**_

Route 30 leading into Central City was unusually bare. Most times it was covered with cars—people were in a hurry to get in and out of the city. However, now it was quiet, Espio noted. He felt something strange as the three quickly raced towards the city along the sidewalk.

They weren't quite 'in' the city yet, only on the outskirts. The suburb-city of Station Square was just south of them. It was a little ways away from Central City, and less than half the size, but it got the job done. From Station Square, you could only get to the Mystic Ruins further south by train.

On either the east or the west side of them was just forest--pure forest. The east forest stretched from Central City, all the way to Station Square. However, the west forest went past Station Square, and later turned into the Mystic Ruins jungle. The area was named after the ancient echidna ruin that lay within the jungle. From the current location of the Chaotix, if you went east far enough, you would reach Central Bay that the capital city is perched next to.

Approximately halfway across the bay from the northeast end of Central City was Prison Island. Prison Island was a GUN base, and a high-security prison. If Chaotix's source was correct, then GUN was just about finished with the repairs on the island. Another island lay south by southeast from Prison Island. Eggman had overtaken Carnival Island, a place familiar to Chaotix, once in the past.

Further south from Carnival Island is an island known as 'Christmas Island.' This is known as the birthplace of Sonic the Hedgehog. And yet further south was the final island. This island stuck out into open sea somewhat, and is not very well known. It's east by southeast from Station Square, and is called 'South Island.' Eggman had also overtaken South Island in the past. Sonic and Tails lived on South Island years ago, until they chased Eggman down and ended up in Station Square.

Route 30 itself, now, was a different story. Route 30 took the southern route out of Central City, and led you straight to Station Square. Going down Route 30 from Central City, and making the first right turn when entering the city of Station Square, you'll see the Chaotix Detective Office a few houses down from the corner.

Route 30 is usually a very popular, two-lane road, because it bridges the small gap on the map between Station Square and Central City. Despite being surrounded by forest, it is widely used. There's also a sidewalk on either side of the road, because pedestrians often take the short hike from Station Square to Central City.

That is where the three Chaotix members were walking along now. Vector marched in front, and Espio ran along at his side. Espio glanced back to look for Charmy, who was flying right behind them, only to find him missing!

He quickly grabbed Vector's arm and pulled him back. "Vector, stop! Charmy is missing." He said.

Vector stared at Espio, in a way that said: 'Are you serious?'

"WHAAAT!" Vector yelled out. "Where'd he go?"

Espio slapped himself in the face. "How am I supposed to know that?" He asked. "I told you to stop so that we could look for him."

However, their questions were soon answered. "Hey guys, you gotta' see this!" Charmy yelled out from the woods.

Vector and Espio glanced and it each other strangely, then ran off into the woods. What had Charmy found THIS time?

**_XXXXX_**

The hedgehog sat there, floating about one foot off the ground, meditating. His fur was colored deep silver. Three quills lashed upward from his forehead, in a wispy style. Two more angled downward behind his head. He was wearing tall, white boots, and the fronts were colored aqua-blue. His gloved had curved grooves on the back, which glowed an aqua-blue color. Golden rings covered his wrists.

He just sat there with his eyes closed, in a cross-legged Indian-style sit. A light blue aura surrounded him. _'What to do now.'_ He thought to himself. _'I have no way to get home, and nothing to do. I don't have any friends in this time-period, either, so how will I ever manage?'_

As he pondered these things, one of his senses kicked in. One that he never knew he had. He sensed… a Chaos Emerald nearby. The forest surrounding him could easily keep it hidden. _'Of course!' _He told himself, the sudden realization hitting him. He opened his eyes now. _'Of course! The Chaos Emeralds can manipulate time and space. Surely, time travel should be a piece of cake.'_

The hedgehog quickly jumped to his feet and caught his senses again. "It's coming from the west." His senses told him, which he then said out loud.

'_Agh, but that leads toward Route 30. That place is always covered in traffic.'_ He thought. Then he added, _'I guess I'll just have to take the risk.'_

He quickly rushed off into the forest, trying to reach the Chaos Emerald before anyone else managed to get his hands on it. _'I need those emeralds!'_ He repeated to himself.

**_XXXXX_**

Espio and Vector quickly arrived at the scene, out of breath, but awe-struck. "Wait a second, this is…" Espio started, but didn't finish.

"A Chaos Emerald." Vector finished for him.

They were both in awe at how lucky the little mascot had been. He managed to find a Chaos Emerald in the middle of nowhere, glowing as usual. Charmy picked it up and showed it to them—the red Chaos Emerald.

"See, I told ya' it was cool!" Charmy proclaimed.

Vector noticed something unusual about the emerald, though. It was clearly red, but instead of a red aura, a light blue one surrounded it. Aware of some strange realization, Vector quickly reached over and slapped it out of Charmy's hand.

"Hey, what'd you do that for!" Charmy yelled out.

Espio and Charmy then blinked when the emerald did fly out of Charmy's hand, but it never fell. It just sat there, floating in mid-air. They both backed up, saying "What the…" and "No way!" in surprised tones.

It was soon realized what was happening, though, as a silver hedgehog slowly descended from above. The emerald flew up and into his hand. The hedgehog landed on the ground softly, barely making a noise. "Thanks for finding this Chaos Emerald for me, guys. You really were a great help!" He said.

Espio snarled. "Silver."

Vector looked stunned. "Why are you doing this, Silver?" He asked.

Silver looked up. "Well, I need the Chaos Emeralds. It's the only way I can get home." The three backed away and just stared at him as he continued. "And I'll do it even if I have to go through you three to do so."

"Since when did you support that?" Charmy asked.

Silver shook his head. "Sorry, guys, don't get me wrong. I still have a deep hatred for crime, but this is home we're talking about. H-O-M-E. Home. You'd do the same if you couldn't make your way home."

"Now, down to business." Silver added, changing the topic. "You will either let me keep this Chaos Emerald, or you will fight me. If you win, I'll give it back. But if I win, I get to keep it. Make your choice, because I don't got all day."

Espio and Charmy got ready to fight, but Vector shook his head. Espio looked stunned. "But…"

"Sorry, guys." Vector said. "We came here to solve this case, not go treasure-hunting. If Silver wants to keep the emerald, let him. We have some unfinished business to take care of."

Now Silver looked stunned. "Wait, so you guys are just going to leave, and let me have the emerald?" He asked.

Espio shrugged his shoulders. "If it's what the boss says, then that's what we're doing."

Charmy nodded, also. "Yeah. Sorry to leave you like this, but we've got a mystery to solve!" He sang.

Vector nodded. "Yep. Come on, boys; let's get out of here. We've wasted enough time as-is."

The three Chaotix members trudged off, and Silver just stared off at them. Stunned. Finally, he decided to run back towards the highway. He'd head across and escape into the Mystic Ruins, hopefully being able to find something of use to him.

None of them noticed the three figures hiding in the darkness, though. The leader grinned awkwardly and pointed toward Silver. "Get that emerald." He said, then continued. "We can take care of the others later."

He laughed, giving off a loud cackle. His two comrades also laughed. Everything was going according to plan, with a few added bonuses. This was going to be one fun night.

**_XXXXX_**

Knuckles walked up the steps leading to the workshop at the top of the hill. Night was fast approaching, and the lights in the building were already on. He paused for a moment, wondering if he should truly go through with this.

He didn't feel like leaving the Master Emerald alone with Tikal any longer. He was taking his usual stroll through Central City—his chance to get off the island now that he found civilization, when he noticed the news announcement on a TV inside a store window.

He didn't pay much attention to it at first, but when hearing the word "echidna" muttered by the new anchor, he quickly jumped up, surprised. It was at that point when he decided to head over to the Mystic Ruins to check it out. He only liked leaving the Master Emerald alone for short periods of time, or when Eggman plots something, but this time was different. He felt that he had to figure out who this person was. Surely Tikal would understand!

Now he had found a new quest, though—finding out about this "Ultima" guy, whose blood was found at the crime scene. So, that's how he ended up here—at the Mystic Ruins peninsula, south of Station Square. It is here where he came--to ask Sonic and Tails of their assistance. 'Maybe he should've just gone home?' He pondered.

But he knew that there was no turning back now. It was all or nothing. He finished walking up the stairs and knocked on the door. Tails was the one to answer it.

**_XXXXX_**

Vector heard the loud cackling echoing through the forest. Darkness had now fully overtaken them, and the blackness of the woods behind them send shivers down his spine. Someone was following them in the dark of the night. Espio heard it too, and he quickly removed his katana—showing the edge of the blade to the forest in front of them.

Vector pushed the three of them backwards, getting ready for a fight. However, no fight came. Everything was quiet. He held his breath, though. Something wasn't right.

"Charmy, get behind me. NOW!" He yelled out, not caring if anyone heard.

Everything still remained quiet. It was calm, and nothing happened. Vector gave off a sigh of relief. He turned around, but just as he did so, the scream of a male echoed out in the forest. Vector spun back around in time to have a white figure fly straight into him, knocking him over.

The figure rolled off, and Vector quickly jumped to his feet and turned around. Silver was lying on the ground, badly beaten. Vector quickly rummaged around, only to find the Chaos Emerald gone.

Vector spun back around as the cackling continued again. Espio strained his eyes, and saw three figures in the darkness—racing towards them at high velocity. He whispered to Vector, telling him what he had seen.

Vector whispered back to Espio. "Cloak yourself. It'll give you an advantage." He said.

Espio nodded, and then disappeared.

**_XXXXX_**

Tikal looked over the edge of the island, waiting. Knuckles hadn't gotten back on time, and she was worried that something may have happen to delay him. She sat down at the edge and let her legs dangle off the side.

A small puddle of water formed next to her. It sprouted up into a full body, with a pointed head. The liquid creature looked down at her, puzzled by why she sat here alone.

Tikal looked up at her friend. "Oh, Chaos, you wouldn't understand." She turned back down towards the planet below. "No one would understand… except for maybe Knuckles and Shadow. Those two are probably the only ones left who know what it's like to be alone. Away from all of your family and friends, the ones you care about." She sighed as the sun finally disappeared from the view of Angel Island.

**_XXXXX_**

Silver managed to sit up as the cackling returned. He rubbed his head and looked up at the Chaotix members. However, they weren't looking at him. He levitated himself up high enough to see over Vector's head, not wanted to move from his position for fear of hurting himself even more.

Vector stood broadly, as if he was trying to protect his turf. Charmy was hiding behind Vector's left shoulder, peeking through his arms. But Espio was nowhere to be seen. They were staring off into the forest, apparently waiting for whatever it was to come out. Then it came.

Three dark figures came flying out of the trees, one after another. It was hard to make out just what color they were because of the darkness, but they were clearly riding on floating boards of sorts. The leader dived down and stopped in front of them, while the other two surrounding them on either other side.

Now they were easy to make out. All three of them were birds, this was clearly obvious. The third was big and bulky. He had gray fur, huge hands, and blank-looking eyes. The second one, a purple girl, wore a bandanna around her head. She had two large clumps of feathers sticking downward behind her at an angle. The look on her face was rather snotty-looking Silver decided.

The first one, whom appeared to be the leader of the group, was a green hawk. Clumps of feathers stuck out behind his head similarly to Sonic's quills. Three long feathers made up his tail. A pair of large, oval-shaped goggles sat on the top of his head. He was carrying the Chaos Emerald that the Chaotix had found in the woods, and tossed it up and down in his hand.

The green one now spoke up. "Well, well, look at what we have here." He said, grinning evilly.

Vector snarled. "Who are you?" He demanded.

The gray one then steps in. "We're your worst nightmare!" He yelled out. His voice was very deep and gruff.

Then the female spoke up. "But," she added to the gray one's comment, "if you really want to know, we'll tell you." She glanced over at the leader, whom didn't seem to notice her. She put her hands on her hips and tried to stare him down, to get him to speak up.

He finally got it, and spoke up—but not before clearing his through. "Well, I guess we could tell you. After all, it's not like you're gonna' live through this day to tell about it."

The purple one gave him another glare, and he quickly continued. "Ah, we are, the, we're the Babylon Rogues!"

He then motioned toward himself and continued. "I'm Jet, leader of the Babylon Rogues. This is my crew." He motioned toward the bulky one. "This is Storm, my second in command." Then he motioned back to the female. "And this is Wave, resident mechanic of the Babylon Rogues."

After finishing his speech, he then turned back to Vector. "And we're here to put an end to your quest to solve this mystery." Vector stared back with a surprised look. Jet continued, slamming his right fist into the palm of his left hand. "Once and for all!"

Vector, still with the surprised look on his face, now made his own statement. "What do you want us for?" He asked.

Jet just grinned. "That is for us to know, and for you to not find out. Say bye-bye to your precious Chaotix Agency, Vector, because we're shutting you down permanently!"

**_XXXXX_**

After learning of the situation at hand, Tails paled out. He had then quickly retreated inside, but soon beckoned Knuckles to follow. He himself had heard stuff about this 'Ultima' character, and it wasn't pretty. Of course, though, those were only rumors. He managed to hide himself from the general public pretty well. 

Tails quickly logged onto his computer and went online, Knuckles quickly finding him down in his workshop beneath the living quarters above. He only had a small place, but it was enough to call home. A small kitchen provided Sonic and himself with food, and there was a small dining room next to it.

The main room consisted of a living room. This room was actually formerly the above-ground hangar, but that was soon converted into his new living room after he moved the hangar completely underground. The second floor contained only one bedroom and a porch.

The second-floor bedroom was actually Sonic's room, but sometimes was made as a spare bedroom when Sonic was on a trip. Tails' bedroom was actually down in his workshop, which was where he spent most of his time.

His bedroom was small, but quaint. As you enter the room from the only door on the south wall, you see the bed in the northeast corner of the room, the computer in the northwest corner, and the dresser just to the right of the door.

Tails typed away quickly as Knuckles walked up to him, surprised at how upset that comment made him. "What's wrong?" He asked.

Tails ignored it initially, then finished typing. "Look at this. It should answer your questions." The young fox then quickly rushed back into the main area of the workshop, shutting the door to his room behind him.

Knuckles turned toward the screen and examined it. It was a GUN profile online. For the picture of the person, the words 'No Photo Available' appeared instead. He quickly skimmed through the article, which marked down a few known facts about this unusual character. Apparently, this guy is a mercenary, his father 'was' a GUN agent until he was killed in action, and he's an excellent sharpshooter.

There was also a list of slated offenses against him, but nothing could be pinned directly on him. Reading through the list for 'Ultima the Hedgehog,' Knuckles quickly realized why Tails was so afraid of this guy. He then thought of something, and quickly glanced back at his profile. Unsurprisingly, though, 'Home' was marked as 'Unknown.'

'_This may be a bit harder than I anticipated.'_ Knuckles thought.

**_XXXXX_**

What happened first surprised everyone. Before anyone could make a move, out of nowhere, a shuriken slammed into the tree behind Silver. A red light flash on it for a few seconds, and Silver instantly jumped out of the way, barely avoiding death as the tree trunk exploded in a fiery inferno.

Everyone shielded his or her eyes from the blast. The tree collapsed towards the road. However, before it could hurt anyone, Silver stood up and lifted his hands toward the tree. The markings on his gloves glowed again, and an aqua-blue aura surrounded the tree. He swung his hands around and in the direction of the others, and then the tree went flying towards them at high velocity.

Still covered in his invisible shield, Espio dragged the two bewildered Chaotix members to the ground. "Get down!" He yelled out.

The tree knocked the Babylonians off their boards and onto the ground. Silver collapsed back onto the ground again, exhausted. Espio removed his shield and pulled Vector and Charmy up. "Vector, get Silver. We've GOT to get out of here before those three wake up."

Vector ran over and grabbed Silver off of the ground, and rushed off towards Espio and Charmy, who had already started off. Jet sat back up and rubbed his head. He looked at his crew. "Well what are you waiting for!" Jet yelled. "Get them, get them!"

The Chaotix managed to get a head start, but it wasn't good enough. The Babylon Rogues quickly caught up on their Extreme Gear and cornered them. Espio gritted his teeth and pulled out his katana. "I guess we've got no choice now." He said.

Vector sat Silver back on the ground carefully, and curled his hands into large fists. "I didn't want to have to do this, but I will if I must!" He said.

"You fools!" Jet said. "You really think you can beat the Babylon Rogues?" The Babylonians jumped off of their Extreme Gear and tossed them away. However, Wave pulled a small ball out of her pocket and tossed it down towards the Chaotix. It exploded, but only caused dense smoke. Espio, Charmy and Vector coughed and strained to see through it.

Storm charged through and slammed into Vector. The crocodile was surprising by his stunning strength. Vector pushed his own hands into Storm's, trying to keep them from reaching him. Storm kept on trying to reach for Vector's neck, but Vector was clever enough to prevent him from reaching that.

Storm backed away, surprised by Vector's strength. However, he charged again after rested. This time, though, Vector quickly slammed his fist forward towards the bulky-blockheads face. Storm's nose felt like an anvil had been dropped on it, and he quickly grabbed it and cried out.

Jet's first target was Espio. He plunged through the smoke at a high velocity, and tossed two large fan-like objects behind him. However, like a boomerang, they swung back around. This move surprised Espio, and the two green objects suddenly collided with him and knocked him onto the ground.

Jet had backflipped over them as they passed by, so that they would instead pass underneath and hit Espio. The two fans curved back again and Jet caught them. He approached the spot where Espio had been lying, but he wasn't there!

Wave's target seemed unusually puny, making her feel like Jet didn't trust her for something. Bickering the whole way, she came out of the smoke carrying a large wrench. She swung it at the bee, but he swiftly dodged her attack.

Charmy stuck his tongue out at her. "Nah, na-nah, nah! You can't catch me!" He sang.

The wind howled, and blew across the road. Clouds passed overhead, and it soon started raining. The wind blew swiftly across the road. Wave grinned.

Catching a breeze as it passed by, she used her wings, along with the wind, to lift herself into the air. Charmy stopped laughing. "Uh-oh." He said.

The bee darted off as fast as he could, but Wave followed him. In a surprising move, Charmy stopped and lifted his stinger up. Wave didn't even see it coming. Her right wing collided with the stinger, and she grabbed the spot with her other hand. In the process of doing this, though, she let go of her wrench and it collapsed to the ground.

Wave groaned and slapped her face with her left hand. "Damnit!" She yelled.

Charmy stuck out his tongue and her again. "Watch your language, missy. There are kids around!"

Wave snarled and directed herself towards the bee. She quickly grabbed him around the neck with her left hand. "How about we go for a little ride?" She asked, sarcastically. "You'll love it!"

**_XXXXX_**

With Storm out of the way, Vector rushed over to aid Espio. However, when he got there, all he found was Jet acting like a lunatic. He was running around, often yelling out. Sometimes he'd swipe away at nothing, and act like he had gotten hurt when nothing was near him.

Finally, Jet kneeled down and bowed. "Mercy! Mercy, please!"

Vector rolled his eyes. He turned around, only to get slammed in the face. A powerful fist collided with his chin, and he flew back and collided with something. He collapsed onto the ground and heard a moaning from underneath him.

"Get off me!" Someone called out.

Seeing Storm running after him, Vector rolled out of the way. Storm jumped up and pounced on the spot where Vector was lying, only to hear a scream that wasn't Vector.

"Sorry!" Storm said, standing up. He looked back down to see whom he sat on, but nobody was there. "Hey, what kind of trick is this?" He asked, looking around to see who pretended to be underneath him.

Vector jumped up and wrapped his arms around Storm's neck. "You're going to pay for this!" Vector yelled out.

**_XXXXX_**

Wave had made her way back to where they left their gears, still holding Charmy around the neck. She landed and looked around, only to find their gear missing. "Uh, Jet…" She spun around, only to have an Extreme Gear fly straight into her.

She collapsed onto the ground, her gear rolling off of her. However, she quickly rolled over and glanced behind her. The bee was now free, and had darted behind a silver hedgehog that was standing over there. Well, at least he was in a standing position, but he seemed to be… floating in the air.

He lifted his hand up and smiled. At the same time he lifted his hand, Jet and Storm's boards floated into the air. He winked at Wave, then threw his hand toward her. The three gears smashed into her, and she collapsed back onto the ground, unconscious.

**_XXXXX_**

Jet and Storm were through fighting. They just failed to come here prepared. Vector had done a pretty nice whooping on Storm, and Espio's invisibility was making Jet nauseous. Jet heard a female scream, and looked back towards where they started off.

Wave was lying on the ground unconscious, with that silver hedgehog and the bee hovering over her. Their gears were lying on the ground around her. Jet snarled.

He grabbed Storm's hand and ran back to the gear. Wave was half-unconscious when they got their, but he was able to get her up and onto her gear. He picked up his and jumped on it, then turned backed towards Vector.

"Alright, crocodile, you win this battle. But mark my words, we WILL be back!" Jet threatened. The three then raced off into the forest and disappeared.

**_XXXXX_**

The Chaotix, now finally able to make their way back to the six-story-hospital in Central City, sat around in the waiting room, thinking over everything that occurred. Silver was immediately admitted to the hospital and was fixed up. The nurse had said that he sustained a pretty bad beating, but nothing too serious occurred. The echidna that they had brought in earlier was also better, and they could talk with him after being checked out one last time.

After the fight, they had immediately taken off towards the hospital and admitted Silver. However, word quickly got out about the fight, and GUN promptly shut down the scene to investigate it. They didn't release any word on what had happened, and kept everything from both that crime scene and the previous one top-secret from anyone.

Apparently, the reason no one was there was because traffic to Station Square had been completely closed off because of an 'accident' that had occurred on the bridge. Despite Vector's highly plausible theory about it being linked to both the Babylon Rogues fight with the Chaotix, and also what happened back in the Mystic Ruins, GUN wouldn't here any of it. Vector reckoned that GUN had some motive of holding this information back, but he didn't dare say anything in public.

He sat down back in the exact same seat he did the night before, exhausted from the previous battle. "So, what have we got now?" He asked Espio and Charmy, whom were sitting across from him while they waited to speak with the echidna.

Charmy tried to think out every thing he knew. "Well, these Babylon kooks apparently are trying to keep the information about this echidna guy down. For some reason, they are also investigating it, and want to stop us in the process."

Espio nodded. "That's the impression I got. If I'm correct at this, attacking Silver and taking the emerald he found was only a sub-plot. They decided to do that when finding out about the Chaos Emerald we found. I thought I sensed something suspicious back in those woods." He commented.

Vector smiled. "Excellent work, boys. You've almost out-done me this time!" He paused for a moment, then added something. "Mostlikely, that 'accident' as it was referred to, was set up by those Babylon guys. Apparently, these guys are the same ones that challenged Sonic's title as the Fastest Thing Alive' back in Eggman's Ex-World Grand Prix held in Future City."

Charmy and Espio both nodded in reply. Vector then continued, but whispered quietly. He leaned in closer to the other two, which surprised them. "I also have another theory. I think that GUN may know something that we don't. Why else would they try and cover everything up?" He explained.

Espio raised an eyebrow. "Plausible theory, I suppose. They are apparently trying to keep everything top-secret for some unknown reason. Why would they need to, though?"

Vector smiled. "I think we should plan a trip to the GUN HQ, in the Mystic Ruins. We may be able to find out a thing or two."

Espio snarled. "No!" He yelled out, not even noticing how loud he spoke. He stood up and pointed angrily at Vector. "There is no way I'm going to…"

But Vector quickly pulled him down and shushed him. "Be careful what you say, Espio. Didn't you notice that people are watching us?"

Espio closed his eyes and clamped his teeth. Back down to a whisper, he apologized. "Sorry, I just don't think it's a good idea to steal…"

Vector shushed him again. "Don't say that! We're not stealing, we're simply 'borrowing' information from GUN headquarters. That's all. Besides, Shadow and Rouge are with GUN. They're our friends, they'll help get us some information."

Espio held his face then opened his eyes, sighing. "Fine, I'll help, but only because I know I can't talk you out of it." He stated solemnly.

Vector nodded. "Excellent!"

Charmy finally spoke up, pointing up. "Uh, guys…"

Vector looked up to see the nurse standing over them. She was human, blond-haired, and Caucasian. "Mister crocodile, I presume?" She asked. Vector nodded, and she continued. "The patient is now ready to see you." She motioned for them to come with her. "Follow me." She said, smiling.

Vector nodded. All three of them stood up and followed her to the echidna's room. The room was on the top floor, and was marked '606.'

**_XXXXX_**

Shadow and Rouge entered into the small, round, private conference room inside the White House. The President had called a special meeting with only the government's top agents. Commander William of the GUN forces would also present at this meeting.

The conference table was round, positioned in the center of the room, and had exactly twenty seats. At the front of the table, positioned at the far back of the room from the entrance, was where the President was to be seated. Next to his spot on the left was his Secretary, Julia Peterson. Immediately to the right of the President's seat, sat renowned commander of the GUN Federation forces, William Striker.

Around the table, a number of well-known agents were seated. However, two spaces were left open on this side of the table. The nameplate on the seat directly across from the President's chair read "Shadow the Hedgehog." Immediately to the right of Shadow's seat, the nameplate read "Rouge the Bat." Just to the left of Shadow's seat 'stood,' not sat, E-123 Omega. There was a green duck just to the right of Rouge's seat, and to the left of Omega sat a peculiar-looking white bear. Neither Shadow nor Rouge recognized these two, and were surprised at their presence.

"Omega!" Rouge said, running up to the android. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" She asked.

The robot turned around and examined the two creatures that stood before him. **"Shadow, Rouge."** He said blankly. **"I heard you would be here. Please be seated."**

Rouge nodded and quickly got in her chair. Shadow merely shrugged and sat down in his. It was rather comfy… but what would be expected in the President's private conference room?

Finally, William stood up. As he spoke, Shadow noticed a chilling sensation in his voice. "You all have been called here today because of your unique skills and abilities. Your talents have made you recognized as the top agents in the United Federation. This meeting was called to address a piece of GUN's past, which we thought to be long gone but has apparently risen up again." He continued. "I now introduce you to our President, and my friend, Jake Nicolson!"

Everyone in the room except for Omega stood up and cheered the President as he walked into the room and over to the conference table. "My friends, I have called you all here to tell you about this important matter at hand. I'm sure that many of you have already heard about what was uncovered in the Mystic Ruins last night. I assure you, though, that this was no accident. This occurrence is a grave matter indeed. Actually, it all started five years ago on the GUN base, Prison Island."

Everyone in the room looked gravely upon the president. His tone had dropped tremendously, and fear was in his eyes. "Remember that this is enclosed information, and you here selected were trusted to keep this information as secret as possible. If this information ever gets out, GUN would be devastated, as well as our United Federation. Let me tell you the whole story."

_**To Be Continued…**_

_**Stay tuned for Chapter 4: Room 606**_


	4. Room 606

**Author's Notes**: Holy crap! I just realized that one of Hadhod's spirit powers in Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is called 'Flaming Fury.' I didn't know that! (I hadn't played The Third Age in forever…) No, I didn't rip it off; it was a complete and total accident. Anyway, here's Chapter 4.

* * *

**Flaming Fury**

**_Chapter 4: Room 606_**

The sound of footsteps came from the hall just outside his door. He looked back and snarled. _'No, not now!'_ The echidna quickly shut the window and locked it. There'd be no way he'd have enough time to escape, now. He'd just have to suffer.

He had climbed back into the bed just as the handle on the door turned and it slid open. The nurse who had taken care of him walked in. "Hey, how you doing?" She asked.

He sat up, hanging his feet off of the bed. "I'm feeling better." He said.

She smiled. "Alright, then. Well, there are a few detectives here who would like to talk with you. Could you please give them your respect?"

He just nodded, not saying a word.

"Alright, then." She stood up and walked to the door. "I'll be outside if you need me. Call me if you need any help."

He put on a fake smile and nodded.

She left, and he heard more footsteps. Three figures walked in. They consisted of a large, green crocodile, a purple chameleon, and a small bee. They were male, and wore casual clothing. Nothing like the detectives he had been expecting. Either way, there was no way out of it now. He had to talk with these guys. Hey, maybe he could sneak some information about this place while also attempting to answer their questions.

The crocodile smiled. "All right, then, let's begin."

_**XXXXX**_

On the bridge of the Babylon Airship, their employer was currently on-screen. Each of them were bruised up and bandaged. Storm's nose was completely covered in gauze. It looked like a large bubble wrapped up in white toilet paper. Wave was covered in bruises, and her left wing was in a sling.

While those two looked bad, Jet was even worse. All over his body, Jet had bandaged cuts. There was a huge swelling above his left eye, and the bottom of his right leg was covered in gauze that stretched from the top of his boots all the way up to just past his knee. His right hand was also bandaged over.

Despite their appearance, Ultima was furious. "How could you have lost?" He asked, angrily.

"They outnumbered us!" Jet blurted.

Storm nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that hedgehog we clobbered…" But before he finished, Wave slapped him across the face using the hand on her good wing.

She turned back to Ultima while Storm rubbed the red mark on his face in the shape of Wave's hand. "They out-strategized us!" She proclaimed boldly.

Jet looked up at her awkwardly. "Is that even a…" But before HE could finish, Wave then slapped him upside the head, too.

Ultima slapped himself in the face. _'How could I have hired such idiots?'_

"How could they have 'out-strategized' you, Wave? You're smarter than all three of those knuckleheads put together!" Ultima said, broadly.

Ultima smiled. "I think it's more that YOU screwed up, as opposed to THEM being better."

The Babylonians backed up, surprised. They then realized that their client had realized that they were simply trying to cover up for their own foolishness. Ultima continued.

"What you did was you underestimated your foes. Don't ever do that in a battle. You need to re-think your strategy. My best way to take down a large amount of enemies is to pick them off one at a time. Try and pick them off one at a time." This caught their attention. They watched as Ultima finished his speech. "Separating is the worst idea when fighting against more than one enemy. Take them down one at a time, and do it together. That is the best advice I can give you."

The screen went blank. The three looked at each other, stunned. Jet raised an eyebrow, and showed off a cocky and sarcastic grin as Wave and Storm stared him down. "Hehe, so THAT is why we lost."

_**XXXXX**_

Now finally inside, Vector got a better look at the look of the room before him. It looked like any ordinary hospital room—containing square; white, non-wallpapered walls. A TV sat on a stand up in front of the bed in the center of the room. Monitors on the far side of the bed kept track of the patient's health—though they currently were not on.

Upon entering, the entire room was clearly noticeable. Chairs were positioned in the corner towards the door to the right, at the far corner from the door, and just next to the patient's bed to the left of the door. There was a stand, or end table, next to the bed in the left corner of the room, closer to the door. Finally, at the far end of the room, a window looked out to the entire city below.

Espio and Charmy plopped down into the two corner seats, and waited for something to happen. However, Vector decided to instead get a good look of the patient, now. This was his first chance to ever take a good look at the echidna that started the whole mess, and he wasn't going to pass it up.

The echidna was sitting straight along the edge of the bed, watching him closely. Apparently it was trying to examine the figures that had just intruded on its territory, as much as he was examining it. The echidna was male, medium-size, and young. Vector estimated him to be around fourteen, but fifteen tops. His fur was a dark maroon-color.

Despite the similarities in color between Knuckles and this echidna, they looked nothing alike. His six dreadlocks were positioned awkwardly along his head, highly unlike Knuckles' look. The fact that he only has six also complicated things. Vector couldn't help but note the positions of each.

He had three along the top of his head. One hung along the right side of his head (Vector's left), very close to actually being on the side of his head. Another was right in the center, which was long and hung far down. The final was toward the left side of his head, but not nearly as close to the edge of his head as the first.

There were others further down, too. A little ways down, in between the middle and the way right, another one hung down to his shoulder. Slightly lower and to the left of the former one, another one sat, hanging down to just below his shoulders. Right below the third one on the way left side of his head, but more to the right, was where the final one was.

Vector estimated his tail to be about five inches long, but it was only an inch thick at its widest point, the base. Like any ordinary echidna, his hands only contained a thumb and a larger piece that it uses to make a fist. His gloves were a simple white with the two notches for his spiked knuckles. He also noted the absence of any mark on the echidna's chest—nothing was there but maroon colored fur.

His shoes were made of leather, and were strapped together. They were rather ancient looking in style, but clearly the workings of the shoes were fairly new. The styles used to be mended together, the quality of the leather and cloth used—definitely newer. They looked more like moccasins than shoes, though they also resembled what one may see on a pair of sandals, with the obvious exception that they were actually shoes.

He was rather scrawny, not much muscle under all that fur. Mostly just skin and bones. He did have enough muscle to pack a punch, but that was about it. He appeared to be really made for relying on other methods. Vector guessed that it had to do with that sword he kept on-hand, but which now had been sealed away into the CCCL—Central City Crime Lab.

Now getting a good look at the echidna's body, Vector finished his inspection by examining the face of the character before him. His irises were a deep red, like the color of fire. His nose pointed upward from his face, in between his eyes. An area of tan, bare skin surrounded his mouth beneath his eyes.

Now finished with his inspection, Vector grinned slyly. "All right, then." He proclaimed, sitting down in the seat next to the bed. "Let's begin."

_**XXXXX**_

Knuckles wandered through the jungle, searching for anything that appeared unusual or out of place. Curiosity had swept over him completely, and now he fully intended on figuring out who this hedgehog was, and what the hell he's up to.

Coming to a small clearing, he stopped and glanced around, taking in the surroundings. A large oak sat off to the left, clearly a rather old tree. Knuckles estimated its trunk to be about five inches in width. Moss had sprouted on his side of the tree. A vine hung from a low branch, but failed to touch the ground.

Behind him, tall grass spread out through the pathway. The trampled down portions marked the way he came, even though he didn't actually do it. He simply followed the path because it looked suspicious.

To the right, a dirt path led through the jungle. Upon reaching this fork, it curved to the right to avoid missing the oak. This was obvious by the fact that it curved from Knuckles' right, into the pathway straight in front of him.

The dirt road looked awkward here, Knuckles decided. It just didn't seem right for something like this to appear in the middle of nowhere. This area wasn't populated to his knowledge, and there were no archeological digs in this area—most of those were up at the ruins higher above, so why would there be a road here?

Knuckles grinned slyly. _'Looks like I'm on the right trail.'_ He told himself.

Guessing that the right path headed towards civilization, Knuckles took the path in front of him. He was sure that _someone_ must have been living back here somewhere. Maybe it's that mercenary Shadow told him about? There was only one way to find out, and that was to go have a look for himself.

_**XXXXX**_

Vector calmly questioned the echidna one by one, to not make him upset or anything. He didn't wish to do any harm, just to figure out what was going on. In fact, he stated this before he even started.

"Listen, kid." He said. "I don't mean to badger you, or upset you in any way. I just want to try and get to the bottom of this whole situation. Is that okay?"

The echidna nodded, and Vector continued. "Before we start, I think there's something else we need to do." He grinned and nodded over at Espio and Charmy. He then turned back to the echidna. "My name is Vector, and I am the leader of the Chaotix Detective Agency."

He motioned over towards Espio, noting exactly whom he was pointing towards. "That purple chameleon over there--this is Espio. He is a skilled ninja, and is the second member of Chaotix." The echidna watched him and nodded.

Vector then he motioned towards Charmy. "That bee over there is Charmy. He's… more of a kid mascot and errand-boy than anything else. He can help from time to time though. He's the one whom found you lying in the forest, and came back to get us."

Finished with introductions, Vector turned back to the echidna. "So, what's your name?" He asked. "If you don't wish to tell, that's fine. We don't need to know, I just thought that we may all feel more comfortable knowing each other better."

For the first time that night, the echidna finally opened his mouth, sighing. "Um… I really don't wish to give out my name just yet." He stated. "However, I will tell you another name my friends refer to me as. You may simply call me 'Flame.'"

Vector smiled at the unusual name. "Alright, then… Flame. Shall we finally begin?"

Flame nodded. "Go ahead. I won't stop you."

The crocodile then asked the first important question of the night. "What did you make of the person you met in the woods?" He casually asked, with no hint of sarcasm.

_**XXXXX**_

Shadow and Rouge walked out of the White House in Central City, very surprised at what they had just heard. The large building gleamed ever so magnificently in the sunlight. The clean-cut grass and the accurately designed walkways through the courtyard would stun any passerby whom had never seen such splendid grounds keeping.

The White House had to be restored after the destruction of Central City. Black Doom used the Eclipse Cannon to destroy Central City during the Black Arm invasion, but the people pulled together and help to rebuild the city. The White House wasn't just restored to its former glory, though. It had been re-mastered by the best architects, and the final development was way better than anticipated.

Right in front of the special White House entrance to the President's office was a stone canopy covering over a circular driveway. This section was clearly so that the President and his security wouldn't have to walk through the building to reach his office. Special privilege was only given to alleged persons.

Luckily for Shadow and Rouge, they were two of them. However, despite this, they had walked here. Shadow had absolutely no intention of ever getting a car for driving purposes only. To him, they served merely as weapons. He could run faster than the fastest vehicle on the planet. Even so, he could simply use Chaos Control to take him anywhere he wanted to go so long as he knew where it was.

As for Rouge, she had a car, but only use it for special purposes. Though she couldn't run fast like Shadow, her wings could take her in more places than a car, and was about as fast as one. She, too, hadn't the need. It was mostly for show than anything else.

So, instead they simply walked along the cobblestone sidewalks, thinking over what was said in that meeting. Finally, Rouge spoke up. "So, what do you make of the situation?" She asked.

Shadow shrugged his shoulders. "It's awkward, that's what it is. We have a kid echidna that likes to play _'follow the deadly mercenary.'_ Then there's the deadly mercenary hedgehog—actually a former GUN agent turned rogue—out to kill the kid echidna that had walked right in front of him when disposing of evidence. Strange pair-up, I'd say."

Rouge yawned and stretched out her arms. She put them back down again and looked up at the sky. It was dark and the moon was out. It was still a ways in the east, but was advancing west. "Well, I think I'd best turn in. You coming?"

Shadow shrugged his shoulders again. "Not sure. It depends on…" A beeping noise stopped him. He quickly swiped out his phone, quickly realizing whom it was. "What turns up." He finished.

He answered the call, and instantly a voice came on. It was William. "Shadow, I have an assignment for you. Fang has escaped from prison again, and is headed towards the Mystic Ruins. You need to go and stop him!"

Shadow nodded. "Yes, commander."

William nodded, also. "Alright then, good work. Rouge is off duty right now, though, so I'm sending in Omega to assist you. He should be there right about now, actually."

Shadow, stunned, spun around and saw Omega approach them. **"Looks like I will be assisting you."** The battle robot proclaimed. **"Activating weapons systems now."**

Rouge smiled and walked away. "Have fun, you guys! I'll see you two later." She then flew off.

Shadow rolled his eyes. _'Depends on your definition of _'fun.'_'_ He thought to himself.

_**XXXXX**_

Vector continued with his questioning. Again, he tried to be cautious not to alarm Flame or make him upset. Some of Vector's questions irritated him.

For Vector's first question, he could barely speak up. He tried to picture the face of that hedgehog in his head, but he couldn't even remember what color he was.

Flame had actually wanted to say, _'I didn't meet him in the woods, you dinkleberry!'_ But he kept quite, avoiding arousing suspicions. It was best if they didn't know what really happened.

Vector's second question wasn't so bad. "Where did you get that strange equipment?" He said casually.

Flame smiled. This one would be easy. It was obvious by 'equipment' that he meant his sword, bow, and quiver. Perhaps even his shoes counted as 'equipment.' "My family gave them to me." He said.

Well, it was the truth. His family DID give it to him. Even though it wasn't the whole truth… Vector continued.

"Where do you live?" Vector had asked next.

Flame bit his lip. This one would be rather difficult to say. How could he say that he wasn't even from this time period! By everything he had seen around him, the advanced technology alone told him that he was far in the future.

He half-lied, "I live in a small village in the jungle." He stated.

Well, maybe it was more than half of a lie. Theoretically, he did live in the jungle. He guessed that the mountain where he found the stones hiding in later became an active volcano, which is how he ended up there.

If that was the case, then these 'Mystic Ruins' everyone is talking about, was actually the ruins of his city. So, if that was the case, then he really DID live in a city in the jungle… it just wasn't a small village, and it wasn't even from this time period.

The crocodile's next question bit him hard, though. "How did you manage to find your way to the volcano?" Vector asked.

He bit his lip even harder. Finally, his lip gave way, and trickles of blood dripped into his mouth. So they DID know about the incident in the volcano! He struggled to find a suitable answer.

"Uh… I got lost into the woods, and I thought that was a suitable gave to stay in over night, not evening realizing it was the entrance to a volcano." He said quickly.

Well, he finally did. He actually, fully lied. Even before being the volcano was a volcano, he never got lost in the woods. In fact, he was TOLD to go there, and was TOLD to get the stones from the cave. That damn bastard had sent him to this time period on purpose—this must've been it! He gritted his teeth.

Vector continued, still not commenting on his answers. The crocodile speaking up snapped him back into reality. "Why was their blood on your sword?" Vector asked.

As he struggled with each question, Flame actually forgot about the fact that there were two other persons in the room, in addition to himself and the crocodile. This question was a bit easier, though. "It was a matter of self-defense. He tried killing me, and I fought back. The blood is his." Flame said.

He dropped his head. Despite the fact that the hedgehog attacked him, he felt guilty for that return attack. This is the kind of situation when it's okay to fight back, he knew that, but… it still didn't make him feel any better. What was that guy doing in there, anyway?

Vector seemed to have noticed the change of attitude on the echidna, but he again avoided reacting differently to it. Flame noticed a change of direction in his next question, though. Instead of bringing up comments on how he made it away, or why he was so weak when they found him, he made a startling statement.

"So, Flame," Vector stated, "have you ever heard of the 'Babylon Rogues.'"

Flame looked up, stunned. Yeah, he'd heard of them, but… how could the Babylon Rogues be alive at THIS time? The gods destroyed them years ago. Or perhaps… some living ones were still left?

Though he never knew any individual Babylonian, he carefully decided to fake this question. "Yeah, I heard of them." It was the truth, he had heard of them. It's not like he was old enough to have met any. Not even the elders could have.

Vector grinned, slyly. "Thank you for your time." He said.

Without further comments, Vector stood up. He motioned for the bee and chameleon to follow. They then left, not even looking back. Flame smiled. _'Now's my chance of escape!'_ He thought.

_**XXXXX**_

His feet were in a blur. The landscape was in a blur. Soon that blurred forest turned into city as Sonic the Hedgehog ran out of the surrounding forest and into Central City. The capital city of the United Federation, Central City was the most well known location on the planet. Future City was the second-most, known as the city with the highest technology.

These thoughts were short-lived, though. A strange fiery-red blur passed by him on the left. Sonic raised an eyebrow. He turned his feet sideways, skidding to a stop. Glancing back, he saw the two-story Central City Crime Lab, and it was on fire!

Acting quickly, he rushed back and surveyed the scene. Actually, nothing too bad was caused. There was merely a straight line of flames going through the front door. A few guards were lying on the ground in front of the building; their clothing turned crisp-black.

The sidewalk that led to the front door separated two rectangular, green patches of grass. A couple bushes had grown right next to the front of the building. The sign out front that read 'Central City Crime Lab' was now lying on the right patch of grass, burnt along the edges. Apparently the firefighters working the scene had put it out.

Walking up to a nearby CSI Agent, he asked what had been bugging his mind this whole time. "What the hell happened here!"

_**XXXXX**_

It was quickly all over the news about the mysterious attack at the Central City Crime Lab. A mysterious figure with fire-red eyes smashed through the lab, and stole three pieces of evidence in a recent case. The artifacts stolen weren't mentioned.

Accordingly, apparently the person itself was the one whom started the fire, but with his/her own abilities. The current suspect was Blaze the Cat, found wandering near the scene and is known for her abilities to control fire. Reasons for her to attack the crime lab were still under investigation.

Blaze continuously denied even being there—stating that she was merely wandering around and noticed all the action near there. For that reason, she states, is why she was even there in the first place.

Sonic the Hedgehog was also near the scene, attempting to play in her defense. "Blaze is good, she wouldn't do anything like this. She wouldn't even have the reason to. She merely wants to be left alone." He explained boldly.

Vector looked at the empty room and frowned at this news report playing on the TV on the stand above him. The room they were just in earlier was now empty, the window open. Espio looked back at him. "Think that the stolen 'evidence' was the equipment that belonged to Flame?" He asked.

Vector nodded. "That's exactly what I'm thinking."

Suddenly, Charmy butted in. "Hey guys, look!" He called out, pointing towards the television screen.

It took Vector one glance to see what he was referring to. The news broadcast was showing clips of scenes from different angles at the latest crime scene. One particular angle; however, pointed off towards the path that led back into the forest. A black hedgehog and a large, red battle android was running towards the forest.

Vector studied the scene carefully before the short clip switched over to another angle. When it switched, he turned back down towards Charmy and Espio, smiling. "Boys, I think we've just determined our next destination." He looked out the window and looked west towards the forest. "Back to the jungle." He proclaimed.

_**XXXXX**_

Flame ducked into an alleyway, freaked beyond his wildest dreams. He looked at his hand. It appeared normal, but he could feel its presence. Something dark was inside of him. He didn't know how it got there, but it did.

Everything seemed to go into slow motion as he leaned up against the side of the building behind him and slid to the ground. The bag he held in his left hand collapsed to the ground, some of the contents spilling out. A few arrows slid out of a quiver, and the tip of a bow revealed itself. The hard wood clacking along the ground as it collided. The clanking of steel came last, as his sword hit home.

_'__Did I really just do that?'_ He thought to himself, a look of terror on his face.

_**XXXXX**_

As they walked along, Espio thought over everything that had happened. The road ahead of them was still a long way off, and it would probably be midnight by the time they reached the jungle again.

Dark clouds hovered above them, and soon it started raining again. Espio paid no attention to it, though. He merely walked and thought.

'_This mystery is getting weirder and weirder with every piece of new info we learn.'_ He told himself. _'First, a mercenary—probably hired by those Babylon creeps—attacks an echidna. Then, these _'Babylonians'_ attack us to try and stop us from solving this case.'_

Espio then thought of the information given to them. _'Of course, we can't forget the information we heard from Shadow and Rouge, along with Flame. So he lives in a village hidden in the Mystic Ruins? He ran into this mercenary and somehow ended up in a volcano?'_

It was logical, but it seemed like something was missing from the picture. Sure, the mercenary could've simply attacked Flame, but how did he end up inside the volcano? Him ending up lying in the jungle was no big mystery—this was easy to figure out.

Then there was the idea that this echidna had some sort of firepower like Blaze. This just didn't add up. He never showed a hint of that before. Maybe Blaze did do it? But she wouldn't do such a thing… would she?

His thoughts were interrupted, though. "Espio, come on!"

Espio quickly looked up, seeing Vector and Charmy a ways ahead of him. In his thoughts he had stopped walking. He shook his head clear. "Roger," he proclaimed. He rushed after them, forgetting his previous thoughts for the moment.


	5. Jungle Retreat

**Author's Notes**: Wow, I'm on a roll here. Chapter 5 is already up. This one is more a less a filler, though. It simply leads into the next chapter. Ugh, not as good as previous chapters, I know. You should really enjoy the last two scenes, though! Simply because of the added detail in them is why you will like them.

* * *

**Flaming Fury**

_**Chapter 5: Jungle Retreat**_

The voices approached fast. He knew that it was no good to get caught now! He dashed across the way behind a tree and glanced out from it. The black hedgehog and that android friend of his were coming this way.

'_Crap!' _He thought to himself.

Acting quickly, he brandished his weapon—a 9 millimeter barrel pistol, and quickly grabbed a vine and climbed up into the tree. Pulling himself up, he climbed to a high branch on the tree, overlooking the forest floor below him.

He smiled as the two walked passed him. _'This would be easier than I thought.'_ He proclaimed, aiming his weapon at the hedgehog's backside.

_**XXXXX**_

Shadow walked along with Omega, pretending not to notice the noise in the trees. It was obvious someone was nearby, but he had other plans. He glanced at Omega. "Hey, Omega, what have you been doing these past months, anyway?"

Without turning his bulky head, Omega answered. **"I was in GUN's repair center. GUN fitted me up with a few enhancements that they had to offer. GUN was the appropriate place for me to go. They are enemies of Eggman, that is good enough for me."**

Out of the corner of his eye, Shadow noticed a figure sitting in a high branch of a large oak. It looked familiar, and he could only guess who it was. Shadow smiled slyly. "Is that so?" He asked. _'Come on, now, take the bait!'_ He thought.

_**XXXXX**_

The weasel, head held high, his weapon poised, ready to strike. He aimed at Shadow straight in the back of the head. From this angle, the bullet will bypass his numerous quills, and directly into the head. If the aim were at its best, then it would slice straight through his brain, causing instant death.

He pulled the trigger down, and… there was no sound of bullet fire. As soon as he saw the three additional figures rambling down the pathway, he dropped the gun to his side. There's no way he could beat all five of them. The only way he would've even had a chance before was if he had taken down Shadow right away, but now with these other three, it'd be even more difficult.

'_Forget this, I'm outta here!'_ He told himself.

_**XXXXX**_

Vector examined the crossroads here. A large oak stood in front of them. Behind them was the pathway that Shadow and Omega had entered from the other road leading from Central City. Tall grass was to the left, some of which was hanging low, and if something made its pathway through there recently. Shadow and Omega were walking down the pathway to the right, which cut around this curve and avoided the oak in front.

It was obvious that something had been here recently. Shadow realized that, and that's why he came down here. Or, at least, Vector assumed that was the case. A yell snapped him back into reality. It wasn't a cry of pain, though. What estranged Vector out most, though, was that it was Shadow whom yelled… and he yelled out Knuckles' name.

_**XXXXX**_

Espio ran up to Shadow. He was kneeling on the ground, checking something red lying on the ground. "What in the world happened?" Shadow asked.

Espio looked at what Shadow was talking to and saw Knuckles lying on the ground. He was badly beaten. A dark bruise lay along his left thigh. His lip was swollen heavily, and there was a cut on his right leg.

"What's going on?" Espio asked.

Shadow looked up at him, surprised. "What are you even doing here in the first place?"

Espio rolled his eyes. "Does it matter? Let's just get him back to the hospital. We'll worry about that later!"

Shadow nodded. He lifted up his hand and a Chaos Emerald appeared. He turned back towards Espio as Charmy and Vector approached, along with Omega. "You guys stay here, in case if that weasel comes back. I don't want to lose him yet. I'll take Knuckles back to the city and come back afterwards."

He turned back to Knuckles, but then glanced at the others one more time. "And when I say 'stay,' I mean stay _here._ Don't move anywhere until I get back." He eyed Vector, angrily. "I'll deal with you later."

He again turned back to Knuckles, and lifted up his left hand. "Chaos Control!" He called out.

A white ball of energy absorbed the two, and they disappeared. Espio groaned and slapped his hand across his forehead. "We're in deep now, Vector. Real deep."

_**XXXXX**_

Tails slid down through the chute. He landed softly into the cockpit of the Tornado III and instantly got to work. "Engines on!" He proclaimed as he turned on the power for the biplane. "Weapons systems activated." He pulled the lever to arm the weapons systems, in case hostiles attacked.

"Lift off!" He then pulled out his remote and pressed a button on it.

A tourist from Station Square had been wandering through the Mystic Ruins. He checked his watch and realized that the train was late. He walked along the edge of the cliff, a railing in between him and sure doom, but then suddenly gasped when he saw a rock formation on the side of the cliff slide over. The Tornado came flying out of it and the opening closed again. The man fainted, falling backward into the earth beneath him.

_**XXXXX**_

All was quiet except for the noise of Espio pacing back and forth in the dirt. Omega stood completely still, watching for the sign of anything. Charmy sat on the ground with his legs crossed, his elbows sitting on his knees, and his head leaning down into his hands.

Finally, Vector stood up. "I think I'll have a look around." He proclaimed boldly.

For the first time that night since Shadow left, Omega moved. **"Actions not recommended. Orders were to hold our position, and we must follow them."**

Espio had also turned back to look at Vector. "Omega's right." He stated, walking towards the crocodile. He curled his hand into a fist. "We were told to stay, we'd best do just that."

Vector snarled. "I just want to have a look around." He walked forward down the path a little ways. "You guys stay here, I'll be back in a little bit."

"That's not a good idea," Espio retorted. "We don't know what's out there. Fang could've stuck around to say 'hi' when we separated." He glanced around the forest surrounding them. "Or perhaps… something even more…"

Upon looking back, he realized Vector had already ran off. Vector was already far in the distance, and quickly disappeared into the darkness of the night. Espio slapped his hand across his forehead, irritated at Vector's foolishness.

_**XXXXX**_

The faint light of the moon cast an eerie aura upon the trees below. The mountains separating the Mystic Ruins from the jungle... faded in the distance as the small plane shot through the sky. The jungle took over, in it's mighty majesty. The Mystic Jungle, it was called, due to legends of an ancient mystical city once inhabiting the area of this great forest.

To the southeast, nearer to the Mystic Ruins, the port town of Station Square shone brightly in the midst of the forest to the west, and the sea to the east. Further north, an even greater city lay. Central City--United Federation capital. Central City was the capital city of the most powerful, and most free, country in the world. This nation was known as the United Federation.

The military organization known as 'GUN' was first set up by the United Federation government. However, despite being a United Federation organization, it was actually a global project meant to keep the world free of terrorism of any kind. That's what the acronym actually stood for, in fact. They were known as the 'Guardian Units of the _Nations_.' One should always remember the 's' in the word as a special note that it isn't merely for the federation alone.

The forest below was regarded as one of the largest in the world, covering hundreds of acres. It wasn't actually the worlds largest forest, but it seemed that way to many. Technically, it was more of a 'jungle' than a forest, but much of it was still forest.

Further to the west, a mountain range blocked the forest from entering a seaside area. About 30 miles west of him, actually 72 total miles from Central City, was a large mountain range blocking off the forest. It was to the west of the peninsula where the edge of the Mystic Ruins was, and spread out along the seaside approximately 60 miles. Then it turned back northward for another 50 miles until nearly the entire forest was blocked off. Still yet another turn, this time west, and went along far enough to completely prevent the jungle from reaching Future City.

Future City, another of the more famous cities in the world. Future City, often nicknamed 'Metal City' by some, contains the most advanced technology Earth has to offer. It's mostly an anthro city, but many humans do live there. Future City is also widely famous for it's production of 'Extreme Gear.' It widely promotes Extreme Gear, and a number of tournaments have been held there.

Tails himself had been there twice at least--both times Sonic and Knuckles accompanying him. Once Eggman plotted to conquer the world with his new Air Fleet. Tails had flown the Tornado over to the beach just south of Future City, Knuckles accompanying him, after recieving a letter from Eggman. During this adventure, they had gone northward through the seaside area, then into Future City and out the north side, ending up in the mountains where Eggman made his base. From there they entered into the jungle, found another Eggman based inside an ancient castle, and then hitchiked a ride on Eggman's new fleet of ships from there.

Another time they had traced a Chaos Emerald into the depths of Future City. However, a bunch of thieves had been tracking the emerald also, and then escaped along with the Chaos Emerald. Sonic, Knuckles, and himself, ultimately ended up joining an Extreme Gear competition, but Jet had cheated and won. Via Eggman's rule, though, 'anything goes,' Sonic had lost and the Babylonians got the emeralds. However, they used the emeralds to revive an ancient sky fortress. Wherever that was now, Tails could only guess.

Tails turned his head back northward, and noticed another city. Ah, yes, Westopolis. How could he forget! Westopolis was a large city about 30 miles northwest of Central City. It was actually a ways from the forest to the north, and near to the mountains north of Central City. However, it was still in a fairly clear area. The city gleamed in the moonlight. Likewise with Central City, it had been destroyed during the Black Arms attack. It, too, had been rebuilt, and now looked better than ever. Why, it even...

A strange thing stopped Tails from his thoughts. This entire time he had been flying above the jungle, trying to find anything out of place. He wanted to make sure that Knuckles hadn't done anything foolish after finding the note on his computer desk in his room. That thought faded away. He had found something out of place.

Tails quickly swung the Tornado around towards the western mountains. Straight ahead, hiding in a dark shadow up against the mountainside and in a small crevass, was a large ship. Tails wasn't even looking over there. He merely saw it out of the corner of his eye. A general ship isn't what had startled him though. This specific ship was more than startling.

It was shaped much like a blimp, a symbol marked on the side of it. The symbol was in a deep green color, and clearly noticeable on the side of the large airship. Tails had seen it a number of times in the past. Three wisps above a lamp, along with two just below the nozzle to the left of it, and one more below the handle.

Tails gritted his teeth. "Babylon..." He muttered.

_**XXXXX**_

"...ambushed me when I was searching for that mercenary." Knuckles stated. "That guy had planned it all along! He knew I was coming, so he had those creeps ambush me in the woods and I was unable to escape."

Shadow glanced down at the echidna sitting on the bed. His left eye was bruised, a bandage was wrapped around his right wrist, and there were scrapes and bruises along his legs. That wasn't what interested him, though. Had he had it all wrong? Was everything truly the way as it seemed? But that was unthinkable!

And yet... the evidence stated so. The echidna had no known home, the only footprints that matched his shoes at the crime scene started in the volcano, and his ancient--looking equipment... Perhaps that was it all along. The echidna really wasn't from this place at all. He was from another time, or another universe even... That wasn't unthinkable. It had happened before. Silver had come from the future. Tikal was from the past. Blaze was from a whole other universe all-together, or so everyone thought. It truly wasn't unthinkable at all!

The almost unknown mercenary had been disposing of evidence inside the volcano. However, somehow that echidna got transported through some sort of warp at the exact same time they did this. The echidna, bestranged at his new surroundings, still managed to tell when something was up. The mercenary attacked him and they fought. In self-defense, the echidna slashed across the hedgehog. The echidna was badly beaten, too, though, and collapsed in the woods while the hedgehog escaped.

In need of assistence, the hedgehog hired extra help. He had hired the Babylon Rogues to do his bidding. Now they were in the forest, and so were the Chaotix, and... wait a second. Maybe it wasn't JUST the Babylonians he hired. There was another hiding in the woods, too...

Shadow slapped his hand across his face and grimaced. He had told the Chaotix and Omega to stay. They could get ambushed just as easily as...

Suddenly the door slammed open, knocking Shadow back into reality. A blue blur rushed up to the bed. "Hey, buddy, you okay?"

Sonic the Hedgehog stood in the center of the room, looking down upon Knuckles' beaten self. Knuckles snarled. "I was until you came in."

Shadow was about to speak, until the thoughts came back to him. The Chaotix were still in the woods. Omega was still with them. Vector would surely do something foolish. The mercenary and the Babylonians were still in the woods. But also...

Shadow rushed forward and grabbed Sonic's hand. "You're coming with me."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "What's going on--"

"No time to explain. Hurry!"

Shadow rushed through the door with Sonic, but then turned back to Knuckles and glared at him. "You stay here. You're no use to us in that condition."

Rushing forward again, still grasping Sonic's arm tightly, Shadow called out, "Chaos Control!" The two disappeared in mid-stride before anyone even knew they had been there.

_**XXXXX**_

The wind echoed in the darkness. Vector felt a chill running down his spine, like something was watching him. He shook it off. All was clear--nothing was out here. It was just an old loggers road. Yeah, that was it. Just an old logger's road no longer in use, which had grown over.

…

Wait, that wasn't possible. There was only plant life on either side of the road, but not on it itself. There was no grass, no weeds, nothing. It's like someone had purposely designed this hard-to-find path so no one would come looking for it…

A gush of wind suddenly blew passed him. Vector gritted his teeth and blocked his eyes with his hand in the turbulence as it passed by. It quickly dissipated, but Vector was left surprised. Everything looked exactly the same. Nothing had changed.

However, it seemed as if something HAD changed, but nothing to the surroundings. A change of presence seemed to emerge. He could feel it… he could hear it… he could smell it. Something wasn't right. Someone else was here.

No, wait, there were three. One in front, one hiding into the woods to the right, and one hiding in the woods to the left. The sound of their breath, the smell of sweat dropping from their brow, and the feeling that he wasn't alone—all poured into his senses as fast as lightning.

Now the shadows became visible in the moonlight. Three figures, one in front, one to the right, and one to the left, just as he had sensed. Espio was right—he shouldn't have come. He had fallen into a trap. He had fallen into an ambush.


	6. Ambush

**Disclaimer**: Chaotix, Babylon, Shadow, Tails, and anything else Sonic-related are all copyright SEGA/Sonic Team. Ultima the Hedgehog, Flame the Echidna, Mai, and Min, are all owned by me.

* * *

**Flaming Fury**

_**Chapter 6: Ambush**_

Surely if they were attacking him now, he must've been wrong the whole time. The shadows of the figures in the moonlight gave away their features clearly. Feathers, beaks, wings… all were present. Vector's eyes twinkled with fear.

He had clearly had it all backwards. If the Babylon Rogues had truly been the ones to hire Ultima, wouldn't he be the one doing the dirty business? No, it was all clear now. They didn't hire anybody. He hired THEM… and now he was going to die because he failed to realize it before...

For once in his life, Vector felt true fear. Death wasn't something one thought about much until you were nearing it… maybe it wouldn't be as bad as he thought? One could hope, at least…

Vector backed away and closed his eyes. His muscles tensed. He put his arms up in front of him in surrender. He braced for impact. He knew that he was going to die. After twenty years of helping people, he just knew that he could die peacefully.

… Nothing happened. Vector opened his eyes. The area was clear. The moon still shined above. However, something was different. The shadows had disappeared. A few trees rustled in the wind.

The wind kicked back up a bit and the trees moved. Three shadows were cast onto the ground, similar in style to the ones he had seen earlier.

Vector gave off a sigh of relief. Had he imagined the whole thing? He must've. Glancing around, nothing was in sight. Well, it was best if he went back now. It was no use staying here.

Vector ran back up the path, intent on getting back by the rest. Unbenownst to him, thogh, three figures stared down at him high up in the trees. The leader grinned slyly as he ran off. A nudge alerted him of something next to him.

He spun around towards his partner. She was female, had purple feathers, with a bandanna wrapped around her head. Evidenced by her facial expression—a deep frown—she was angry. "Why are you letting him go?" She hissed.

He quickly put his hand up in defense. "Patience, Wave. We'll show him a thing or two later, after we take care of the others."

Wave raised her eyebrows, eyes open wide. What was he planning? Their target was getting away! Following orders, she slumped back. It was irritating working under the role of an irresponsible leader. Wait… is that what that chameleon also thought? Boy did their groups have a lot in common, she decided.

_**XXXXX**_

Tails stared up at the enormous airship in front of him. Starting at the front of the ship—which was currently on the right—it had a beak-shaped yellow end, with a white cuff next in line. Afterwards there was a cuff of yellow in between the dual pair of white and the rest of the airship—which was red.

At the way end of the ship—the left side from his position, it was completely white, except for the red propellers. The main cabin below the upper portions was colored white. The lower area of the cabin, including the hangar, was all red.

The Babylonian symbol was on this side of the ship, in a faint green color. He had seen the other side many times, and this wasn't there. However, it clearly was seen on the opposite side—the right side of the ship. The ship was hidden in a crevasse in the mountains. A ridge wrapped halfway across this crevasse, making it nearly impossible to see if you hadn't been looking for it.

But… what were they doing here? Tails could only guess, but none of it made sense. Clearly, if it was stopped here, then they weren't on the ship. Meaning they must have had something to do in the jungle…

Tails spun around and glanced down into the jungle behind him. Nothing seemed out of place. Of course, though, he could only see the tops of the trees… they could be anywhere down there!

Curiously, Tails glanced back up at the ship. He lifted his hand up to his face. _'Hmm… I wonder what it looks like inside? Maybe some information, perhaps…?'_

Yeah, perfect. Blame his curiosity of their technology on searching for information. Oh well, it wouldn't hurt to take a look anyway. The hangar seemed shut tight, though. How would he get in? Well, it wouldn't hurt to try.

He approached the ship cautiously, wary of possible alarm systems. He got a little closer… closer… he was only a few feet away. He approached closer, and…

…

Nothing happened. He gave off a sigh of relief. There weren't any alarm systems… on the outside at least. He walked up to the hangar, but he suddenly jumped back with surprise. As he had approached it, the door had swung open.

'_Well that was easy,'_ he decided.

Now he just had to get through without activating any alarms systems… if there were any. Considering their reputation, they may not need any. They rarely ever landed.

Tails quickly slipped inside unnoticed. Nothing went off, and nothing noticed him. He made his way through the hangar and found a door. He opened it and went through. He'd figure out what was inside here if he had to explore every nook and cranny.

_**XXXXX**_

_The boy swung his fist forward, coming straight at me. I quickly ducked to the side as he slammed into the wall. His fist caught in the wall, but he quickly ripped it back out again and turned back to me again, glaring at me with wide, vicious eyes. He waved his fist back and forth._

"_You won't get away with this, Jan!" He proclaimed boldly._

_He charged again. I simply stepped aside and let him pass by. He turned his feet sideways, stopping himself from moving farthing. He spun back around angrily._

_I tried to calm him. "This isn't the way things should be!" I said, throwing my hands out in surrender. "We're family, we can talk through this! Why should we fight like sworn enemies, Min?"_

_Min didn't take it too kindly. He swung his fist forward, pointing straight at me. "Because you took everything from me... She was my life!"_

_I lowered my head. "I didn't do anything. She chose me instead of you; I had nothing to do with it!"_

_Min's eyes grew with hatred. He charged forward again. I didn't move this time. "I will kill you if I have to!"_

"_Stop!" A female voice cried. A girl flung herself in between Min and I. She spread her arms out. "What must I say to stop this nonsense!" She asked._

_I held my breath. Min stopped his charge. I barely noticed it. I stared forward at her. A light cloth covered her tan fur. Mai stood before me, an angel in the night. Min still loved her, though she did not love him. I never chose her, but she chose me._

_She always remained my best friend through our trials, and now she stood before me like a guardian angel. I would've loved to see her face again…_

A howling noise echoed through the forest. The young boy lying in the grass sat up and rubbed his head. Wait, where was he? He glanced around. He was still in the jungle. He slammed his fist into the grass. It was all just a dream!

But he saw her… Mai was standing before him. Yes, that happened just before he had run away. They were all too cruel, he couldn't stay any longer! He had asked her to come with, but she didn't accept. Now he was trapped in this future with no way home…

He glanced up. The moon was high overhead. It had to be around the middle of the night right about now. He turned back towards the mountains behind him. If he had heard right, his destination should be just over that ridge. He'd have to climb a ways to get up there. Well, at least echidnas are good climbers…

_**XXXXX**_

A tingling sensation came over him. He felt as if he had been lifted straight out of the universe. The black figure ahead of him gripped his hand tightly. Something had agitated him enough to take him with. Someone was in danger?

It felt like he was flying a million miles per hour—rather unusual, even for one whom ran hundreds of miles per hour all the time. All surroundings were simply a dark blue blur mixed with green. The spinning colors were unusual, but not new. He had experienced this before.

Within seconds, they had reached the other end of the 'tunnel.' Shadow didn't hesitate to immediately begin running. Sonic strained to keep up with him, without the ability to move his arm freely. He quickly glanced around, noting that they were now in a dense forest.

Darkness surrounded them. Looking up, he could see moonlight overhead. The trees were too thick for the light to pass through, though.

Finally, irritated at being dragged into this without warning, and now able to run instead of being dragged, Sonic spoke up. "So, you got a good reason for _dragging_ me into this?" Sonic asked.

Truly, he had meant it. Shadow literally 'dragged' him. Unfortunately for Sonic, the black hedgehog just grunted. Shadow's iron grip still kept a heavy hold on his arm. He said nothing.

Sonic rolled his eyes. _'You're a big help.'_ He thought.

_**XXXXX**_

The wind echoed. Howling could be heard in the distance. Down the path, Espio heard a noise—a mighty cackling. Wait, hadn't he heard that before?

Espio stared into the blackness: an endless, deep trap of death. The wind rushed all around him. His heart raced. He blocked out the oncoming turbulence with his arms and stared into the distance. He couldn't see a thing, but he knew that it wasn't good.

Espio didn't even noticed Omega and Charmy following him when he rushed down the pathway. Vector had been ambushed, and they'd let it happen!

_**XXXXX**_

Only a few more feet… he could see the top of the ridge clearly from here. There was a small notch in the rock above him. He grabbed it tightly, wrapping his hand completely around it. He knew the drills of climbing. Make your way up carefully and don't…too late.

He glanced down, and fear gripped his heart. It looked as if he were looking down off the top of the highest mountain in the world. The landscape stretched out hundreds of feet below him—a gaping chasm that stretched out in all directions.

Quickly putting his fear aside, he turned forward again. He was almost there. He could make it! He just…

A loud bang shot out from below. He had no clue what it was, but it startled him. A few speckles of dust collapsed off of the ridge near him. He didn't dare look down. He simply reached up with his left hand and stuck his hand into a crevasse in the rock formation.

Another loud 'bang' rang out. This time, the jut in the rock his right hand was gripped onto slipped, and… broke off. He held his grip on firmly with his left hand as his last support on his right hand crumbled away.

Now without a second grip, he hung down with one hand. He was looking down again. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a figure standing on a rock outcropping over four hundred feet below him, but about thirty feet from where he started his climb.

The figure was difficult to make out, but it appeared blue… almost black. Wait, was that a purple color? He couldn't tell in the dark. It clearly wore a brown hat, though he didn't know what kind it was. He'd never seen such a thing before. It had a long object pointed towards him. If that was what he thought it was, he'd better get out of here!

He glanced back up. There were no outcroppings or crevasses, but he was nearly to the top. If he swung himself enough, he should be able to push off of the rock wall below him and grab onto the way top of the mountain, then pull himself up.

The person below fired another shot. He blinked as the shot smacked into an outcropping of rocks nearby. A rock slipped at the bottom, and the entire pile collapsed. A miniature rock avalanche rolled down the side of the mountain. The figure below quickly disappeared as the pile buried the spot he was standing.

Well, that gave him a little break. The figure was gone. No doubt he'd be back though. Was this guy hired by the hedgehog he met in the cave? …he didn't want even to think about it.

_**XXXXX**_

They came too fast for him to have time to counter. With a swift stride, a figure quickly glided through the air and slammed something hard into his back. He collapsed onto the ground as fast as they had come.

A voice called out to him from behind. "Pathetic for one of your reputation, Vector," the voice cackled out behind him.

Vector rolled forward and, when doing so, pushed his arms into the ground. Using the momentum of the push, he quickly spun forward onto his feet. He quickly spun back around just in time to see a figure charged towards him.

The turbulence around him caused the winds to pick up, and made him block out his face with his hands. Peeking through his hands, he saw a purple figure lunge onto the other figure—which also appeared purple, just before colliding.

An instant later, a battle cry sounded. It was soft, young, and… male. "CHARGE!" The immature voice called out.

"Charmy?" Vector asked himself, still blocking out the turbulence with his hands. He saw metal flash into the turbulence, quickly dispatching of a bulky guy whom had fallen off of his board.

The turbulence died down and everything slowed. So HE was the one who was making all the turbulence. With Omega pinning down the large one, and Espio with the girl, who was left?

_**XXXXX**_

Tails couldn't help but touch everything in sight. The technology built into this ship was astounding. Much of the ship had been vulcanized. Doors, propellers, turrets… The door opened with vulcanized shields. The entire ship was completely powered on vulcan energy.

As his Vulcan Cannon was powered that way, so was this. He examined every inch of the ship. The technology was spectacular! He could easily develop something like this, but he never thought to try.

The hangar at the bottom of the ship was used as an entrance and for cargo. Though notably, small ships could also fit in here—possibly for the Babylonians to keep the ship afloat while still going to and from it. Obviously they hadn't done this right now.

A few gears were hanging along the walls of the hangar. The hangar was small compared to an ordinary one, but it could still fit a few biplanes if needed.

Moving on, he found a door along the middle of the north wall. He approached it and the vulcanized mechanics opened it up automatically. It split into four sections and disappeared into the wall. In front of him, there was a staircase leading up. More and likely, this led up into the main cabin.

The staircase went up four floors in a zigzag pattern. Four flights of stairs, four floors. Each flight of stairs, different from most places, instead was what was between each floor. At every landing was a door, and at the way top, Tails presumed, was the main cabin.

However, he also noticed a door right at the bottom of the stairs. Before going up, he tried approaching this door. Unlike the previous doors he encountered, though, this did not open up when he approached it. Instead, a small keypad appeared on the wall.

There was a small screen on it, and it contained solely numbers. The screen itself read 'Enter Password.'

Tails rolled his eyes. He could clearly guess what was in this room, now. _'Of course--they only secure the treasury.'_ He thought to himself.

He started up the stairs and approached the first door, wondering what could be on the other side.

_**XXXXX**_

The last thing she noticed was a figure lunging straight at her. She had charged the crocodile as Jet asked, but something attacked her before she made it. The figure collided with her body and she rolled along the ground.

They rolled a little ways into the forest, each trying to hold the other down. She reached for his neck, but he back flipped out of the way. Now she could make him out clearly. He was purple, with a long tail curled out behind him. He was clearly well-trained in his skills, as was she.

He swiped out a dagger in his left hand and a shuriken in his right. She had nothing to match it, though. No matter, they could settle this easily.

She grinned slyly. "Give up, chameleon!" She called out. "Chaotix are finished."

Espio raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, we're totally finished," He said sarcastically. "You guys sure are handling us well."

Wave backed up in surprise. He had outmatched her in words! That's impossible… no one out-speaks Wave the Swallow! He was… he was… he… he was perfect.

He and she had very similar viewpoints. They were both stuck under an incompetent leader. Both were well-trained in their own skills, unlike the rest of their teams. And both were wide open.

Wave backed up even further. She hid her face. NO! Don't think that way! We're sworn enemies, we can't… we couldn't… there's no way that…

Out of the corner of her eye, she peeked out at him. His strictness of voice, his trained posture... Everything about him mimicked herself. It's as if she was looking into a mirror and a guy peeked out! If only the Chaotix and the Rogues hadn't become enemies, they… they could be perfect soul-mates!

She slapped herself with her hand on her face. There's no thinking about that. She had a job to do, she couldn't be thinking about anything else. The mark on her face disappeared. She came out of her hiding place and looked over at the waiting chameleon.

She threw her hands forward. "Come on, Espio, let's finish this!"

_**XXXXX**_

Tails had now completely examined the first room. It was obviously Storm's room. It was basic, though. A hammock hung from one side of the room to the other, just to the right of the door. In the opposite corner, there was a punching bag in the corner. There were also a few posters along the wall for a variety of famous rap music groups.

Tails shuddered. Rap. Yuck.

He had then turned and headed up the next flight of stairs after that. Here he found what appeared to be a mechanics paradise. Various pieces of equipment lay on shelves along the wall. Wheels, metal lining, paint cans, brushes, wrenches, screwdrivers… you name it, it was there.

A work desk sat in the back and to the left. A chair was sitting up against, tucked neatly under it. On the opposite side of the room was a small bed. The sheets were neat and tidy, and everything looked perfect. Clearly the person who used this room was both a perfectionist, and a mechanic. Wave.

He made his way up the stairs again. Here he found the final room before he headed up to the main cabin. Just inside and to the left, close to the wall but not up against it, was a desk. A chair sat in front of it. In the left corner of the room was a stand of some sorts, but nothing was on it.

A large window looked outside upon the mountains below. Above the desk and just to the left of the window was a picture of an old hawk. Clearly this was Jet's room, and that was his father. The rest of the room was bare. No sign of even a bed was here.

Now he merely had the main cabin left to examine. He made his way up the final flight of stairs. The door was clearly visible there. He approached it and it opened. He looked inside to the enormous cabin of the Babylon Airship. The sight took his breath away.

_**XXXXX**_

Espio stared at the faint figure lying on the ground. Wave's complexion showed beautifully under the moonlight. He couldn't help but stare... He blushed and backed away. How could he be having these feelings… but as he stared at her peaceful face…

He remembered her unusual reaction earlier. He knew that he could've easily taken her down at that moment, but instead, he had let her go. When she got back to business, they had fought, but he finally knocked her out with a swift kick.

Had she been experiencing similar feelings? That's the only explanation he got out of it. She was really easy on him…and he was easy on her. She looked so peaceful as she lay unconscious on the ground…

Espio slapped his hand across his face. He couldn't think of such a thing! Clearly, Chaotix and Babylon were no sworn enemies. Or were they…? He shook the thoughts out of his head. He had a job to do, and he intended on completing it.

Espio approached her again. He pushed all feelings aside. He went and picked her up, wrapping his arm around her chest. He lifted her up and carried her over his shoulder. Using his hands to balance her, he carried her back to the main pathway.

Strangely, he noticed Shadow and Sonic over there. He knew that Shadow should be here, but… Sonic? _'What is he doing here?'_ Espio thought

_**XXXXX**_

He looked upon the glimmering city in the distance. In showed brightly in the midnight darkness. After all the trouble he had getting up the mountain, he now realized how worthy it was.

_Back when that guy starting shooting at him, he had thought he was done for. He hung on by a single, tiny crevasse in the cliff-side. The other jut that he had been grabbing with his right hand had fallen down because of his attacker below._

_However, the shooter made a mistake. He had knocked out a stone which caused a stone avalanche. The figure had to quickly escape before it crushed him. That gave him a short while to figure out what to do._

_It didn't take long. He noticed a rut a few feet away. If he could swing over to it, he should be able to push off of it and use the momentum to reach the top of the cliff._

_He had tried swinging a little bit, but his foot didn't quite make it. He kept on slipping off the edge. Finally, he did what he didn't think he could possibly do._

_He swung over, purposely letting go just as he reached the rut. He was moving at a very fast pace. Using the momentum, he slammed his foot down onto the rut. It collapsed, but he was flying so fast now that it didn't matter._

_Or perhaps it did. He wasn't even close to the top yet, and his speed was decreasing. He swung his hand up and around, and…_

_The bangs started up again. It startled him, but he couldn't let that stop him. He began falling… but his hand still grasped the edge of the cliff. Now firmly at the top, he had a chance._

_The figure kept on shooting, determined… but failing. His target pulled himself up and over the cliff-side and rolled out of sight._

It was tough, but worth it. Now he could make it to the city he had heard of. The tall buildings, the advanced technology...it was too much to bear. He was finally on his way…

He collapsed to the ground, weary of all that had happened. His quiver slipped off of his shoulder. A few arrows fell out, but something startled him even more. A few bundles of green rolled out of them. He raised an eyebrow.

Picking up one of the stacks, he examined it carefully. Was this… money? Had someone planted this one him? He spun around, but saw nothing but sky and darkness. Wait, maybe… someone was helping him?

This would be enough to give himself a nice upgrade of equipment. Maybe even allow him to find a place to stay for a while. For the first time that day… he smiled.

_**XXXXX**_

Omega dragged over the struggling Storm, holding him down with his mighty limbs. Vector and Espio walked up beside him. Vector pushed Jet onto the ground, and he collapsed. Espio carefully set the unconscious Wave onto the ground. Omega threw Storm down also.

Jet glanced up, a new look of fear in his eyes. His mouth was opened wide with surprise, and his eyes twinkled with terror. Shadow and Sonic towered over him. Sonic had a particular look of surprise on his face.

"Why, Jet?" Sonic asked. His head hung low, his eyes filled with sorrow. "Just… why! Why did you do this?"

Jet frowned. His eyes narrowed in on the blue hedgehog standing above him. "I did it for the treasure! He made an offer I just couldn't refuse." Jet jumped to his feet and pointed angrily at him. "You'd do the same if offered such wealth!"

Sonic shook his head. "No, Jet, I wouldn't." Sonic backed away. "Do your duty, Shadow. I have nothing further to comment about such greed."

Shadow glanced back at Sonic and nodded. He swung his arm forward and grabbed Jet tightly around the neck. He ripped a pair of handcuffs out. "Jet the Hawk, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

He pulled Jet's arms back out behind him and closed them around his wrists. They clicked, alerting them that they had now been firmly locked into place. Wave and Storm attempted to sneak away while Sonic was interrogating Jet, but Vector and Espio had caught them and pulled them back.

Shadow went over to them and repeated the process on each of them—repeating the quote, pulling their arms behind their backs, and locking the handcuffs into place. Shadow beckoned to Omega, and together they marched the Babylonians back towards Sonic.

Before meeting up with the others, Shadow turned back around and glanced at the three Chaotix members. "You guys need a lift back to Central City?" He asked.

Vector shook his head. "No, I don't think that will be necessary." Vector glanced back behind him out of the corner of his eye, spying a shadow sneak away in the darkness. He smiled. Eying Shadow again, he finished his statement. "We've got some unfinished business to take care of."

Shadow shrugged his shoulders. "Alright then, good luck." The black hedgehog back away towards Sonic, Omega, and the Babylonians. He turned around and waved them off, then charged a small ball of energy in his hands. He swung his right hand around towards the others, and they all disappeared into a blue energy.

Vector immediately turned around when they disappeared, determined to finish what he had started. Espio quickly cornered him, blocking his way. His arms were crossed, and he had an angry look on his face. "What did you mean by 'unfinished business'?" He asked.

Vector smiled and continued moving, walking around the chameleon. Charmy quickly joined him by his side. "You'll see," Vector finally said.

Espio snarled. He ran off after them, wondering what trouble they were about to face.

_**XXXXX**_

As he glanced up at the monitor, his previous frown turned upside down. The Babylonians had failed. That was obvious. Not only that, but the weasel failed to take out the echidna. The echidna escaped, the Babylonians were captured… Everything had gone wrong.

But now… now they were coming. They knew he was here. They wanted him. He could see them walking through along the trail. His grin turned into a snicker. Now he could at least kill them for ruining his plans. They had no idea what power he possessed. Soon they'd be dead, and no one would know who had done it.

He walked away from the console and glanced up. The light was on. He clapped his hands together. It flickered, and then total darkness covered the entire room. They needn't know what lay inside. They'd find darkness and emptiness inside… nothing there to take hold of, until they soon met utter darkness themselves.

**_To Be Concluded…_**

* * *

Only one chapter left! Stay tuned for the final chapter in Flaming Fury, Chapter 7: Confrontations. Also stay tuned for the sequel—Team Chaotix: On the News, Coming Soon! 

You can also check out more fics of mine at my deviantART account: www dot ultimahedgie dot deviantart dot com.

_**Author's Notes**_: If you're wondering about the names seen in Flame's flashback, and on what he was called by Min, I'll tell you. Before I wanted to make my characters more original, I just 'made' them, not worrying about race and appearance, etc. However, later, when I made them more original I didn't want to change them 'too' much. For those reasons, I kept the races.

To keep Flame original, though, I made him be transported from the past. Later I got the idea to try and make the names of his relatives and friends more 'ancient' sounding. That's where I came up with Jan (Flame), Mai, and Min (Mine). Mai is Flame's best friend. Min, or Mine as I originally wanted to call him, is Flame's cousin. I later made Flame and Mine's original names to be their nicknames instead. There are also some more characters I have, too, but I didn't reference them here.

Remember this, though—Mai is not meant to look like Tikal. I'll reveal exactly what she looks like later. Also, I have no intention of relating my characters to Tikal at all (that is, my past characters). In my storyline, all my characters existed well before Tikal was even born. They existed back when the echidnas began to become more corrupt, and that's Flame's reasoning for his leaving.

_(P.S. 'Jan' is meant to be an older version of 'John.')_


	7. Confrontations

Blackness haunted their every step. Knowingly… willingly… they marched through the deep, dark blanket of the night.

They knew that there were two villains hiding in these woods. First was a known sniper, backstabbing and betraying—wanted for multitudes of crimes. And then there was a ruthless mercenary—able to hide in the background, and pull things out without the general public knowing anything about it.

Yet, despite knowing this, they willed themselves to enter this dark trap of death. The soft ground crunched lightly beneath their feet. Branches snapped, twigs crushed, leaves blew, and rocks rolled.

They had entered the point of no return. The final face-off against their enemy—against the one whom originally had accidentally dragged them into this mess—was nigh. Now, they marched humbly into his trap of darkness. Knowing… and willing.

Their final confrontations before the end…lay just ahead.

_**XXXXX**_

**Flaming Fury**

_**Chapter 7: Confrontations**_

As the young fox finished his examination of the bridge, a beeping startled him. Tails jumped. He glanced around the room. Nothing stirred. If there was anything special occurring in the room at this moment, there was no sight of it. Yet… the beeping continued.

He glanced down towards the front again. Nothing looked out of place… the steering wheel sat near the far wall. Windows looked outside upon the rocky region in front, and to both the left and to the right of it. The walls around the front of the ship—the cockpit, was square-shaped.

Up above the cockpit was a large screen where apparently transmissions could be taken. Behind the steering wheel a few feet away was a chair. Apparently, Tails had realized, it could be pulled up to the front wheel if somebody needed it.

A ledge encased the cockpit area, a railing above it. The only way down into it was a two-step staircase right in the center. On either side of the pathway were computer consoles, and seats. The consoles were advanced compared to generic modern technology, but outdated by Future City standards.

Considering the fact that both Dr. Eggman and Tails himself could design better technology than that of Future City, it was well outdated. However, despite this, it was still a remarkable sight to behold.

Behind this, and just to the left, was the door that led back down the airship of the Babylon Rogues. Behind him, along the wall, was a door. He had already been in here, though. It was only the engine room. The engine room was merely used as a way to repair damage made to the engines, obviously.

Though nothing was out of place, the beeping remained. Tails blinked. Wait, hadn't he created special communications devices for Sonic and himself? But those were only used for… emergencies!

Tails slapped his hand across his face and ripped out his communicator, already on his way out the door. "What's up?" He called out.

In a flash, he made it down the steps, and was approaching the exit out of the hangar. He had no time to go down normally, so he simply flew down instead.

Sonic answered. "Tails, where are you?"

He rushed outside of the ship and hopped back into the Tornado. "Uh… I was… checking out something suspicious." He stuttered as he spoke. Well, it was the truth! "It really was nothing, though… heh…" Um… okay, so that last part wasn't.

He quickly revved up the engines on the Tornado. "Well hurry up," Sonic replied, "I need you in Station Square immediately!"

The Tornado flew off, Miles Prower—better known as Tails—in the cockpit. "I'm on my way!" He called out through the communicator.

_**XXXXX**_

Well, this was perfect. Just perfect! They followed the path the whole way and yet… nothing. It was a dead end. The road ended here up against a mountainside, absolutely nothing in sight anywhere. No caves, no secret doors, no houses or buildings… nothing! It was just and empty pathway leading to nowhere.

Espio snarled at the crocodile, whom what searching frantically around for something. "Now what?" He asked.

He groaned. They had come all this way to track down a killer. Now they had to walk all the way back to Central City, when they could've merely warped back with Shadow via Chaos Control. It sure was such a waste to stay now.

He walked over to the mountainside, mumbling a few curses under his breath. He leaned back up against the wall and looked at Vector. He pushed over a giant boulder sitting to the left of the pathway and glanced underneath. He smashed a couple of trees.

Up above, Charmy scanned higher ridges, but wasn't having any luck, either. Nothing was here, just rocks and trees.

Espio had noted the scenery carefully, though it didn't do any good. A narrow pathway skidded up through the woods in a zigzag fashion. It was narrow, with barely enough room for one normal sized car. Large trees blocked out the moonlight from seeing the road, there branches spreading far.

A large, fat one sat off to the right from his position. It was thick and broad. The tree went high up, about half the size of the ridge above him. Its branches were able to stretch all the way across the road, and a number of them had fall onto the ground.

The road itself was dirt, with a few weeds here and there. Green grass inched along the edges, ultimately going into the forest, but it failed to cross the road. The road ran straight into the rock wall next to him and stopped right there.

At Espio's feet, a small rock sat on the ground. It was irritating him, but he ignored it. On the opposite side of the road, a large boulder sat on its side. Vector was there, peeking around for anything suspicious.

Espio just grunted. They weren't going to find anything, so why bother?

He repositioned himself, sliding his foot just to the right, and… hardness. His foot had smacked into something!

Irritated out of his mind, he turned, and slammed his foot into the rock. It went flying through the air, and smacked straight into a jut in the rock wall. It smashed to pieces and fell to the ground. Well, at least he had something to take it out on.

Espio leaned back up against the wall again, setting his right foot on the spot where the rock was. Suddenly, his foot sank into the ground. Espio quickly jumped to the side as a round panel beneath his foot disappeared into the ground. He heard a mighty cracking sound behind him. Surprised, he spun around, as did Vector.

What he saw was very unusual. The rock wall slid over, revealing a hidden entranceway. Not surprising, the road led straight into it.

Vector grinned and walked up to him, patting him on the back. "Good job, Espio, I knew you could do it!" He proclaimed.

Espio rolled his eyes. He was sitting around the whole time, and accidentally found this.

Vector began walking towards it, but a yell came out from above. The mumbled voiced yelled what sounded like, "Look out!"

Espio spun around in time to see a figure pointing something at him. A tiny object flew out, and stung him on the shoulder. The pain wasn't what he felt, though. The toxin quickly spread through his body, and he felt only one thing after—sleepiness.

_**XXXXX**_

He flexed his muscles out. Yeah, perfect! Nice looking. The scratches were gone, and his muscles no longer ached when using them. Boy did it feel good to be back in shape.

He stepped back a bit, and punched forward with his left fist. He quickly spun around counter-clockwise and threw out another quick jab towards the door. Surprisingly, it swung open.

Shadow stood on the other side, and he quickly back flipped out of the way to avoid the punch. Knuckles' eyes opened wide. He dropped his arms down to his side. "Uh, sorry, Shadow… heh…" He brushed a trickle of sweat rushing down his forehead.

Shadow waved it off. "No worries—I'm fine."

Shadow walked into the room and carefully glanced Knuckles up and down. Well, he sure looked in great shape—despite being a victim of an ambushed attack by the Babylon Rogues. All his bandages had been removed, and his arms looked perfect again.

He grinned. "You're looking like your normal self again."

Knuckles nodded. He sure had. He felt better than ever! "Yeah, you could say that…"

Shadow nodded. He pulled out a small envelope. "Here, a token of GUN's gratitude for your help—despite not being asked. You earned it."

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. What could GUN give him? He shook his head. "Whatever it is, I can't accept it. What would I do with it, anyway?"

Shadow shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, that's your choice. I'm not in charge of what you do. I would recommend you at least look at it, though…"

The red echidna rolled his eyes. He quickly snatched the envelope out of Shadow's hands. "Fine, I'll take a look at it!"

He plopped down into the bed and ripped it open. It wouldn't hurt to look, would it? He pulled out a small letter; nothing else—just a letter. Wait… it was… a dinner invitation? It wasn't addressed to anyone.

Clearly Shadow was merely the deliverer, and it truly wasn't from GUN after all. But… who would send him an invitation… to anything!

He shook his head. No way! He wouldn't—couldn't go through with this. Now, where was that black…

Knuckles jumped to his feet and spun around. Nothing. He turned back towards the door, still stunned at what he saw. Nothing. Shadow was gone. He had… left him… with this… and now he couldn't lose it. Great, so he'd have to go after all… Damnit!

'_How do I always manage to get myself into these messes?'_ Knuckles pondered.

_**XXXXX**_

He woke up on hard, cold ground. His head was pounding. He heard noises above him. Struggling, he opened his eyes. His body was too weak to move. A green figure stood above him. A small, yellow thing hovered in mid-air.

Who was he, where was he? The… the forest, yes. What else? He remembered the forest. He had accidentally triggered some sort of switch which opened the door... A grey figure had hit him with… with something. He felt so tired. A tranquilizer dart?

He remembered that. Someone shot him with a tranquilizer dart! He… he collapsed to the ground and fell asleep. What happened after? He couldn't remember. He simply woke up here, at Vector's feet. What was going on?

Espio shook off the weariness. He used his hands to push himself up. However, he stopped. About ten feet away a white figure stood. He stared straight towards Vector… or, was it… no way, it couldn't be… The hedgehog was staring at _him_!

He was bare-headed, silver-eyed, and held a pistol in his hand—pointed straight at Vector. He wore a leather belt around his waist which hung loosely around his furry body. Along the right side of his belt was a small gun holster. Around the left side, an ammo clip hung from it.

His fur was a light gray. His eyes were silver, and he wore silver-colored soap shoes. His wrists were fitted with polished metal bands. Stuck onto the bands were two devices—one around each wrist, but Espio couldn't make them out from his position. He also noticed small metal spikes at the end of each of his ten quills.

Speaking of his quills, they were a heaping mess! All of them pointed downward, but the positioning was awkward. Toward the left side of his head, one curved around and ended right below his left shoulder. Right on the top of his head, at the center, one of his quills went straight down. Just to the left of that another wrapped around the right side of his head and sat there.

Below the previous ones around the center of his head, three more hung down. To the right of those, another twisted right a little ways. Above this one, one curves around to the left of the previous one. On the way left side of his head, the final two sit cock-eyed from each other, simply pointing down.

The hedgehog stood there, with a crooked smile on his face. A nasty scar, beginning just above his nose, curved down and around it slightly. It curved passed his right eye, but just to the left of it—Espio's right. It ended right below his right eye.

"I see you're awake," the hedgehog commented.

Vector glanced down and saw Espio along the ground. He nodded to Espio. "Good, you're up. I was afraid you were out for good!"

Vector was soon stunned as Espio suddenly back flipped onto his two feet off of the ground—pulling him out of the way just in time. A bullet crashed against the back wall of the room, flicking off of the hard steel.

Vector crashed onto the ground. Espio immediately jumped into action. He quickly swiped three shuriken stars out of nowhere. Acting quickly he threw the first in his right hand, then the second in his left, and the third in his right hand again. All three shot through the air straight at Ultima at high velocity.

As if he saw everything in slow motion, the hedgehog quickly leaned sideways a bit as the first shuriken shot passed his head. He then quickly flipped backwards just as the second came flying underneath him. His feet in the air, he curved back around and slammed the final shuriken straight into the ground upon coming back down. The small ninja star didn't reach its objective. It was now stuck underneath the foot of Ultima the Mercenary.

Espio blinked, backing away slightly. "I… impossible!" He proclaimed.

Ultima smiled as another figure appeared. The other figure was a purple weasel, and it was obvious who it was. "No," Ultima proclaimed villainously. He finished as they approached Espio, "it is completely possible."

The white hedgehog looked out upon the black night surrounding him. It was now passing midnight in Central City—the perfect time for him to split. He needn't be here when daylight returned to the world. A slight chill brushed through the city, sending shivers through his body. Maybe he should find some place warm, too…

_**XXXXX**_

As he stepped down from the hospital doors, a figure cornered him. He rolled his eyes. Yeah, just what he needed at a time like this. He tried dodging to the left, but it pursued. "Where do you think your going?" A female voice proclaimed.

He hissed, "None of your business!" He yelled.

He covered himself on the right and marched off. The person persisted. "I'm not leaving until you tell me where you're going." She proclaimed.

He raised his eyebrows and stared at her. "I have no idea, actually." He continued moving forward. "Away from here, that's all I know."

She snickered and chased him. "Mind if I come along, Silver?"

Silver rolled his eyes at the persistent curious kitty following him. She sure was acting a little unusual, wasn't she?

He continued walking, not allowing his legs to stop moving for any reason. "Whatever you want, Blaze. I don't know where I'm going, anyway."

She sighed. "Alright, do want to know the reason why I want to follow you?" Blaze asked.

He didn't want to admit it, but he actually DID want to know. What the hell was up with her right now! "Spill," he stated solemnly.

She smiled. "I'm tired of moping around. I figured I'd try something different for a change. You seemed to be in a similar predicament as me, and I figured we could stick together for a while."

Silver grinned slyly. That sounded interesting—though he truly didn't want to admit it. "Alright, then, you can come along."

She closed her eyes and smiled. Well, that worked well. Now if she could survive with this fake attitude any longer. Truly, she couldn't stand it. But that's what he suggested, so she might as well try… couldn't hurt a little while, could it?

Silver rushed off north through Central City, Blaze tailing right behind him. They rushed out of the city, ready to find someplace new and different from this usual trash. Blaze had heard of a nice quiet city northwest of Central City. Maybe they could go there…?

_**XXXXX**_

Almost immediately, the entire room was ablaze with gunfire. A bunch of pillars were spread out through it, along with a few machines. Towards the far corner—directly opposite the entrance behind him, was a computer console. Apparently this controlled everything.

Espio ducked behind the first pillar he saw as turrets came out of the ceiling, and littered the ground and walls with machine gun bullets. Glancing to the left, another pillar stood a bit forward from him, and a few feet across. Vector did his best to hide his bulky body behind it, Charmy just above him.

Espio peaked around the pillar to the left of him, and saw the gray hedgehog standing at the far end of the room, watching the situation. Fang was sitting at the computer console, pushing buttons everywhere. Whatever he was doing, he certainly was doing a good job of it.

Espio glanced over towards Vector and saw him motioning for him. He nudged his head back a couple times, and Espio did his best to figure out what he meant. Wait… he was… Vector wanted to use him as a distraction!

The crocodile quickly whispered to Charmy, then motioned towards the console. Now he got it. Vector was telling Charmy to sneak back and deactivate the turrets, while Espio distracted Ultima! Well, this would be a bit difficult. Oh well, he may as well try.

Putting his hands together, Espio disappeared from sight. He dashed up against the wall behind him quickly and quietly. Glancing back towards Vector, Charmy remained hovering. He wasn't moving. This meant that he had to make his move, first.

Hugging the wall, Espio nudged slowly along the room. Bullets flicked off of the wall and around his feet, but nothing hit him. He was able to see Ultima now, but he wasn't looking at him. The hedgehog remained staring forward. He grinned evilly.

Swiping out a throwing dagger, he quickly swung his arm around and threw it at the hedgehog. Espio quickly ducked forward as Ultima caught the weapon with ease, and then turned in his direction. By the time he glanced over, though, Espio was already behind the next pillar. It didn't matter, anyway, for he couldn't see him.

Ultima walked through the fire of the turrets towards the spot. Moving quickly Espio grabbed onto the hedgehog tightly and uncloaked himself. He had ripped out a katana and edged the blade against his neck. Ultima blinked, surprised at the sudden attack.

Espio leaned forward and whispered into his ear. "You will call off your associate, or I will slash through your neck."

Fang had noticed this strange appearance, and had turned all the turrets toward them, but stopped when seeing his 'boss' hold up his hand. "Turn off the console." Ultima stated.

Fang did as he was told. The turrets stopped firing. Almost immediately, Vector grabbed Fang with powerful arms. Charmy hovered above, a frown on his faced. He aimed his stinger straight at him.

"One wrong move, bounty hunter, and you'll feel a piercing pain you would never imagine." Vector proclaimed boldly. "I won't hesitate to have my little friend here pierce you." Fang said nothing, and walked carefully out with Vector.

Ultima quickly stuck out his hand and grabbed Espio around the neck. He threw him across the room and the chameleon collided into a pillar. The hedgehog quickly pressed a few buttons on something attached to his wrist, and suddenly jumped up as a vehicle drove out of a hidden passageway.

The hedgehog landed on perfectly onto the seat as the bike drove out. He pulled it over a little ways further and waved his hand, grinned evilly as the Chaotix could do nothing but watch their criminal escape. "So long, suckers. I may have lost this battle, but I won't let my reputation go down in flames." He quickly pressed another button on his wrist, and then drove out through a new passageway that opened up.

Espio dashed to it, but it suddenly sealed tightly. He slammed his fist into the wall. "Damnit, he got away!"

Vector walked over to him, Fang tightly in his grasp. "He may have got away, but we'll get him next time. For now, though, let's get out of here."

They rushed back out the main corridor to the entrance of the high-tech cave. As soon as they got out, an explosion erupted behind them, knocking the four of them forward. Espio jumped back on his feet and spun around, seeing the devastation.

The entire cave collapsed under heaps of rock. It's almost as if he intended on having the mountainside crush all of his work. Of course, that's exactly what he wanted! He didn't want anyone to know he'd been here.

Vector stood back up and grabbed onto Fang again, who had almost gotten away in their surprise. The crocodile blinked awkward at the strangeness of it all. "Y'know, I could use a hot shower and a break from near-death situations."

Espio was still frowning that the hedgehog got away. He turned around, still ignorant, but content. He chuckled slightly. "I couldn't agree more." He glanced back once again, estranged at the whole situation.

Vector glanced over to him. "What's wrong, Espio?" He asked, curiously.

Espio shook his head and turned back around. "Nothing," he proclaimed, "just hoping that we can survive the way home."

Vector smiled. "You know, I have a feeling that we won't have anything to worry about." He began marching off. "Let go, boys!"

Espio quickly rushed off after him. "Good idea."

Charmy looked up, dazed and startled. He opened his weary eyes. "What's up?" He proclaimed. Then, he noticed Vector, whom was dragging Fang along, and Espio running off. He opened his eyes wide and jumped into the air, flying off after them. "Wait for me, guys!"

_**XXXXX**_

The day after Chaotix had returned to Central City with Fang, everyone went back to their original business. Shadow and Rouge were assigned to track down the Babylon Rogues, whom had managed to escape from prison already. They're last known direction was west over the mountains, and the two wasted no time in tracking them down.

Meanwhile, Eggman had made a surprise appearance—attacking an oil refinery off the southern coastline of Station Square. An army of his newer, updated robots had attacked and intended on taking it over. Sonic and Tails immediately got into action and began chasing him down, fully intending to not let him succeed.

Knuckles finally was able to return to Angel Island, where he encountered an eager and worried Tikal—upset that the emerald guardian had been gone so long. This was despite the fact that Chaos was with her the entire time, and would surely have stopped anything that approached the emerald.

Fang had been shipped off to Prison Island the night before, and was now locked under tight security. Ultima had escaped, but at least they managed to re-capture Fang. William made sure that Fang wouldn't be able to get out for a long time.

Blaze and Silver returned to wandering. Silver finally got over being stuck in this time period, and decided to make the best of it. Blaze joined him, also over being stuck here. They were last seen heading northwest towards Westopolis.

Omega had been assigned to a special mission with two other GUN agents, but no other info was given. Their source inside GUN was able to track down his coordinates, but even he was unable to uncover any further details. They were going to Future City for some unknown reasoning.

As for Chaotix… they returned to Station Square and got back to business. No one had heard anything of what happened to Ultima, but at this point, Vector didn't care. Instead, he was plopped down in his comfy chair. Espio immediately returned to his training, ignorant about the others. Charmy plopped down into his hammock again and continued playing his game.

Suddenly, a knock at the front door startled them. Vector grumbled, irritated at something occurring JUST after they had finished a case, and for absolutely no profit too! Who could be coming at this time!

Charmy, knowing his duty, quickly rushed over and opened the door. A female human was on the other side. She walked in. "I have come as a representative from the GUN Federation Forces." She stated.

Vector blinked. "What's GUN want now!" He asked.

She straightened her glasses and walked inside. "Vector, after your previous aid to GUN, we have a token of our appreciation." She placed a normal sized, rectangular envelope on the table. "Inside is some money for your trouble, and also a request. I suggest you read it as soon as possible."

She then left as quickly as she had come. Vector quickly eyed the envelope. Money was the last thing on his mind as he slit it open and pulled out the check from GUN. What he was most stunned at was the object still tucked into the envelope.

Vector read through it quickly and efficiently. Espio walked over and eyed Vector. "What is it?" He asked.

The crocodile's eyes opened wide. A long grin crossed his face. "Our next mission," he finally said.

_If you need help, we're on our way,_

_Ready for adventure, nothing makes us stay,_

_Doing our best, everything goes our way!_

_No case is too small, so long as we get our pay._

_Team Chaotix!_

_We never turn down work that pays,_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We'll solve your case in all our ways._

_Team Chaotix!_

_Working through any obstacles,_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We're ready when duty calls._

_When we're put to the test, Vector puts everything to rest,_

_As enemies arrive, we allow Espio to thrive,_

_Up in the sky, Charmy keeps us flying high,_

_Nothing gets in our way, or we toss it all away!_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We never turn down work that pays,_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We'll solve your case in all our ways._

_Team Chaotix!_

_Working through any obstacles,_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We're ready when duty calls._

_With our skills, we'll make it through,_

_As a team, we'll show you what we can do._

_Solving crime, that's our way,_

_So long as we get our pay!_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We never turn down work that pays,_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We'll solve your case in all our ways._

_Team Chaotix!_

_Working through any obstacles,_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We're ready when duty calls._

_We're ready for adventure,_

_Taking another venture,_

_Showing you what we can do!_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We never turn down work that pays,_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We'll solve your case in all our ways._

_Team Chaotix!_

_Working through any obstacles,_

_Team Chaotix!_

_We're ready when duty calls._

_C-H-A-O, T-I-X!_

_C-H-A-O, T-I-X!_

_Chaotix_

_Yeah, we're Team Chaotix!_

Everything had turned out alright in the end. The money he was given was enough to give him a nice upgrade of equipment. His quiver hung on the new belt he bought. His old arrows had been replaced with high-tech ones, specially designed for specific purposes.

A brand new black sheath hung on the right side of his belt. His sword hadn't needed any upgrading, apparently. According to the person he had talked with, the blade was crafted of a special mineral known as 'vulcan,' which could break through the toughest of metals. Alas, it could not break the most hardest metals—gold and titanium.

He still had the same old trusty bow he received from his father, though. He felt that it should remain the same. It was inside his quiver with the arrows to go with it. His shoes had also been given an upgrade. They were blue-colored, and had a small crevasse along the center of them, a piece of metal inside.

However, despite the magnificence of this city, it was still filled with cruelty and terror like any other ordinary city. The majority of the city was suspended high above the ground along platforms. There was an area of the city existed that was known as the slums, though.

It was just north of the main city. It was heavily filled with casinos, and many other places existed here, too. Crime and violence populated it. Many thieves, smugglers, and bandits lived here. Only those who couldn't afford to live in the main part of the city dared to go here.

He had a small amount of money left, but if he found a job down there, he could find a place there to live. It wasn't the nicest of places, but that's just the reason he wished to. He could help those in need, aiding the troubled. Maybe he could handle living in this future after all. He had found something he could enjoy doing.

**_  
_**

**_Author's Notes_**: Hah, I told you I'd finish this! And look, isn't that such a nice ending? It was a happy one after all. P Though I didn't explain it, Bean and Bark actually DID have something to do with the plot, but they were background characters. I shall explain more about what they did later (I was originally planning to reveal some here, but I decided to skip it in this chapter).

Clearly you can notice a few plot holes, 'eh? …or are they? Stay tuned for the sequel, Team Chaotix: On the News, coming soon! Also stay tuned for other stuff of mine.

Sorry about taking so long to upload this here. wouldn't show up when I tried uploading it first, and I simply forgot about it until now. The final version of the Team Chaotix: On the News Prologue is currently in the works right now. You should notice some differences, including an added scene, along with a new, minor character (whom is brand new and completely fan-made, and NOT Hannah), whom will be aiding Chaotix in their mystery.


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